


In The Olden Days 



BY 



MARY SHERRERD CLARK 




Chiss F \ ^ S 



DOUK 



r.U|))Tl6ll( N^ 



COPYKlCirr DKPOSIT. 



IN THE OLDEN DAYS 



IN THE OLDEN DAYS 

PAPERS COLONIAL AND 
REVOLUTIONARY 



BY 

MARY SHERRERD CLARK 



PRIVATELY PRINTED 
AT THE LITERARY COLLECTOR PRESS 

GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT 

1905 






OF THIS BOOK ONE HUNDRED 
COPIES ARE PRINTED 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Conies Received 

NOV 28 1905 

Cotiyriffht Entry 

GUSSf CI. XXc. No 

COPY B. 



Copyright, 1905, by 
MARY SHBRRERD CLARK 



PREFATORY NOTE 

TNTEREST in American history of the colo- 
■^ nial and revolutionary times is a matter of 
comparatively recent growth. I mean a gen- 
eral interest, not merely the devotion of a 
few antiquarians. It is gratifying to know 
that the women of America are sharing in 
this interest and are doing good work. The 
organization of chapters of Daughters of the 
American Revolution and of Colonial Dames 
and of kindred societies has undoubtedly 
stimulated the spirit of inquiry and it has 
been followed by excellent results. 

In this book some papers are presented 
which were originally prepared for societies 
such as those I have mentioned and two or 
three of them have been printed in periodi- 
cals. The writer did not regard them as de- 
serving of further publication, but some of 
her friends, believing that they ought not to 
be allowed to share the fate of essays of that 



PREFATORY NOTE 

order, have persuaded her to preserve them 
in this privately printed volume. 

The modest author would be among the 
last to ascribe to them any great historical 
value ; but there are those who have a differ- 
ent judgment about them, and who are con- 
fident that their sincerity of purpose and 
their grace of style will commend them to 
readers who love the study of the story of 
olden times. 

I am permitted to make a confession, on 
behalf of the author. The autograph letter 
of Carteret is purely the product of her his- 
torical imagination. The governor might 
have written it, but there is no evidence that 
he ever did write it. The other autographs 
mentioned are true, valid and genuine be- 
yond question. 

A.H.J. 



CONTENTS 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 1 

A CABINET DINNER AT THE REPUBLICAN 

COURT 17 

MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED THE 

PROGRESS OF NEW JERSEY 35 

THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 49 

THE WOMEN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTER- 
DAY 73 

AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 89 

POOR HUDDY 105 

THE SURPRISE AT PRINCETON 117 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 
GENTLEMAN 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 
GENTLEMAN 

NOT many months ago the great-great- 
granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin 
appHed for membership in one of the women's 
patriotic societies, and was refused admis- 
sion because the ancestor named was not a 
gentleman. 

I shall not discuss the question, ''What 
constitutes a gentleman?" for the press was 
filled at the time with satirical paragraphs 
concerning the matter, but I shall look back 
for a few moments at the character and deeds 
of the great American — the most complete 
representative of his time; and as we gaze 
into his kindly face, or try to visualize him, 
with his stout, middle-sized figure, his trim, 
sober clothes, his fresh complexion ; as we read 
his lazy, familiar letters ; as we tell over his 
innumerable acts of kindness ; as w^e follow, 
day by day, his life spread out before us in 
1 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 

that genuine classic, the Autobiography y I 
think we shall find that, as a wit, scientist, 
leader, and man of letters, Franklin was the 
epitome of his age, and that his great-great- 
granddaughter's claim was not based too 
high. 

Some one has recently said, with humorous 
sarcasm, in reference to a person who had 
much to say of his lineage, that "he perched 
on the upper branches of his genealogical tree, 
and hurled down the cocoanuts of his ances- 
tors at common folk," and if you will pardon 
a little clever nonsense in rhyme, I will quote 
it before taking tip my serious study : 

A QUESTION OF PEDIGREE 

'Now who is that,' asked a dignified hen, 

' That chicken in white and gray ? 
She's very well dressed, but whence did she come, 

And her ancestors, who are they ? ' 

'She never can move in our set, my dear,' 
Said the old hen's friend to her, later; 

'I've just found out, you'll be shocked to hear, 
She was hatched in an incubator! * 

Not to dwell too much upon the question of 
pedigree, let us quote a sentence from Burke's 
Peerage: " Franklin, Josiah, of Ecton, North- 
amptonshire, came to Boston in 1682. The 
family of Ecton traced back four centuries to 
2 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 

1250. One of his sons, Benjamin, born in 
1706." 

This son was our Franklin, appropriately- 
christened Benjamin, as he was the youngest 
of seventeen children, born in Boston, January 
17, 1706. It was intended that he should be 
a clergyman, but a tallow chandler who had 
sixteen other children to provide for naturally 
found this scheme impossible, and the late 
comer was set to making candles. However, 
Benjamin threatened to run aw^ay, so he was 
placed with his brother James to learn the 
trade of a printer. 

Although only sixteen years of age, he 
already wrote poetry, and had read Locke on 
The Understanding-, Xenophon's Memora- 
bilia, Defoe's works, and many others ; yet no 
one could foresee that he was destined to 
become the most famous master of his craft 
since Caxton. But Franklin soon tired of 
serving his brother, sold his books and ran 
away from Boston. This time it w^as more 
than a threat. He first tried his fortunes in 
New York, but failing there he went on to 
Philadelphia, where he arrived one Sunday 
morning in October, 1723. This is minutely 
described in his Autobiography . Whittington 
and his cat entering London were no more 
picturesque than Franklin, with his three 
3 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 

rolls, one under each arm and the third in his 
mouth, walking up Market Street and pass- 
ing before the eyes of the young girl destined 
to become his wife ! He says, " Then I walked 
up the street, gazing about, till I met a boy 
with bread, and on inquiring where he got it, 
I went immediately to the baker's, in Second 
Street, and asked for bisket, intending such as 
we had in Boston, but they were not made in 
Philadelphia. Then I asked for a threepenny 
loaf, and was told they had none such. So 
then I bade him give me three-penny worth of 
any sort. He gave me, accordingly, three 
great puffy rolls. I was surprised at the 
quantity, but took it, and having no room in 
my pockets, walked off with a roll under each 
arm and eating the other. Thus I went up 
Market Street, as far as Fourth Street, pass- 
ing by the door of Mr. Read, my future wife's 
father, when she, standing at the door, saw 
me, and thought I made, as I certainly did, a 
most awkward, ridiculous appearance." 

Time will not permit me to quote further 
from the Autobiography. Henry Cabot 
Lodge, in his admirable essay on Colonialism 
in the United States, calls Franklin's Auto- 
biography "the corner stone, the first great 
work of American literature." The next 
thirty -four years of Franklin's life are really 
4 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 

the history of Philadelphia — I may say of 
Pennsylvania — if we except the time between 
December, 1724, and October, 1726, which he 
spent in London working at his trade, read- 
ing, studying, and gaining a knowledge of the 
world. In 1726 he returned to America and 
worked as a printer until 1729, when he took 
entire charge of The Pennsylvania. Gazette. 

On September 1, 1730, he married his old 
sweetheart, Deborah Read, and they lived 
happily together for more than forty years. 
Mrs. E. D. Gillespie, of Philadelphia, his 
great-granddaughter, and the records of 
Christ Church, in that city, are my authori- 
ties for this date. 

In 1733 he began to publish Poor Richard'' s 
Almanac, and continued it until 1758. One 
smiles now to see the little, soiled brown 
pamphlets of a dozen leaves each, which were 
so eagerly anticipated and so widely read by 
our forefathers. We can hardly appreciate 
the importance of the little books, for to the 
present generation an almanac is merely a 
cover for soap or patent medicine advertise- 
ments; but then it was the vade mecum of 
every household, a calendar, diary, recipe, and 
sometimes school, book. Its jokes and anec- 
dotes were served as fresh year after year, and 
were greeted by no chestnut bell. It is hardly 
5 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 

necessary for me to tell you that Franklin, or 
Richard Saunders, as his pen-name reads, did 
not originate all the "sayings of Poor 
Richard," and a reader of Bacon, La Roche- 
foucauld, and Rabelais will recognize many 
old friends. The subject is a fascinating one, 
and I should like to devote my entire paper to 
a study of the little almanac, but a few quo- 
tations must suffice. 

First came the title-page : Poor Richard— 

An Almanack for the year of Christ . 

This was followed by an address to the 
"Courteous Reader." Then came a calendar 
for each month, with weather reports, as 
accurate, perhaps, as some of those of our 
forecasters ! The remaining space was filled 
with rhymes, anecdotes, and advertisements. 
" Poor Richard " saj^s, "Blessed is he that 
expects nothing, for he shall never be disap- 
pointed;" and were there ever truer words 
than these ? " Three may keep a secret if two 
of them are dead." 

The following will delight the cynic : "Three 
things are men most likely to be cheated in : 
a horse, a wig, and a wife ; ' ' and we couple 
him with Lincoln as we relish the wit of 
a sentence like this: "We must all hang 
together, if we would not all hang sepa- 
rately;" or the ending of the letter to 
6 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 

Strahan, "You are now my enemy, and I am 
Yours, B. Franklin." 

This is true American humor, which we all 
can understand as well as we can Franklin's 
interest in silkworms and rice culture. 

Interspersed among the proverbs we find 
such notices as the following : '* Ready money 
for old rags may be had of the printer hereof, 
by whom is made and sold very good lamp- 
black." With what rapture must the afflicted 
possessor of an aching tooth have read this : 
"An infallible remedy for the toothache is, 
wash the root of an aching tooth in elder 
vinegar, and let it dry half an hour in the sun, 
after which it will never ache more." 

But I must not linger over the little primer 
which gained for Franklin a reputation such 
as few men have enjoyed, for it has been, and 
will be, printed in every size, from a duo- 
decimo to an imperial folio, and in nearly 
every language, including Swedish, Chinese, 
and modem Greek ! 

Nor can I more than mention a few of the 
leading facts of his increasingly useful life 
before going on to my glance at "Franklin 
the Diplomat." Franklin was the earliest 
American who had fame among foreigners, 
but his wide popularity was due rather to his 
successes as a physicist, as a statesman, as a 
2 7 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 

philosopher, than as a writer, and Lord 
Jeffrey wrote of him, " He never lost sight of 
common sense," and the following list of his 
achievements shows this most conclusively : 

1. He established the "Junto," 1743, now 
the American Philosophical Society. 

2. He created the post-office system of 
America. 

3. He invented the Franklin stove and 
suggested valuable improvements in ventila- 
tion and the building of chimneys. 

4. He founded the Philadelphia Library, 
the parent of a thousand libraries. 

5. He made many wonderful experiments 
in electricity. 

6. He measured the temperature of the 
Gulf Stream, and discovered that northeast 
storms may begin in the southwest. 

7. He pointed out the advantage of build- 
ing ships with water-tight compartments, 
and first urged the use of oil as a means of 
quieting dangerous seas. 

Franklin has helped the whole race of 
inventors by his words, now historic, in reply 
to some one who spoke contemptuously of 
Montgolfier's balloon experiments, asking of 
what use they were : " Of what use is a new- 
born babe?" 

Franklin was as honest and proud as he 

8 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 

was shrewd. He accepted with composure 
the honors paid him, and formed fast friend- 
ships with men Hke Lord Kames, Sir John 
Pringle, Burke, and others, but he never for- 
got that he was plain Ben Frankhn, whose 
primary purpose for being in England in 1762 
was to watch over the interests of the Prov- 
ince of Pennsylvania. And this brings us to 
the real reason of his being sent to France as 
a diplomat. 

It is necessary to look back at France in 
1770, when the Due de Choiseul was over- 
thrown, for this, strange to say, marks an 
important point in American independence. 
Had the colonies then taken part with France 
against England, a French general might 
have led our armies, and French gold paid 
our troops ! In 1774, however, when Louis 
XVI. came to the throne and Yergennes was 
made foreign secretarj^ American affairs were 
again brought to their notice, and they could 
not fail to unite with us against a country 
that had openly violated international law 
by seizing three hundred French ships and 
casting ten thousand French sailors into 
prison. 

Franklin's keen mind saw at once that a 
crisis was at hand, and in 1775, when the 
Committee of Secret Correspondence was 
9 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 

formed in Philadelphia, he found from Mon- 
sieur de Bonvoulois, who had been sent from 
France, that his surmises were correct, and 
he asked the crucial question, " If we throw 
off our dependence on Great Britain, will any 
court enter into an alliance with us for the 
sake of our commerce ? " This, then, was the 
starting point of our diplomatic history — 
"alliance and aid for the sake of our com- 
merce." 

Then came the Declaration of Independence, 
which he signed with a witticism on his lips, 
and with it the question of recognition ; but 
recognition was a declaration of war, and to 
bring the French government to this decided 
stand required the highest diplomatic skill. 
The colonies had but one man equal to the 
task, and that man was Benjamin Franklin. 

We maj^ fittingly apply to Franklin the 
words used by Dr. Lyman Whitney Allen 
with reference to Abraham Lincoln : 

The hour was come, and with it rose the man 
Ordained of God, and fashioned for the hour. 

At this juncture he certainly merited Ban- 
croft's encomium: "Franklin was the greatest 
diplomatist of the eighteenth century. He 
never spoke a word too soon ; he never spoke 
a w^ord too late ; he never spoke a word too 

10 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 

much ; he never failed to speak the right word 
in the right place." 

Fancy this old man as he enters France 
unattended in December, 1776 ! They do not 
know of his coming until he stands before 
them, and as they look upon his serene yet 
grave face, upon his hand now stretched forth 
to strip from a scepter they all hated its 
richest jewel, a feeling of reverence steals over 
the French Court, and they bow before him as 
they have never done before to prince or king. 

So great was the confidence of the French 
Government in Franklin that he was able to 
secure arms and loans, to effect a treaty of 
alliance, and to keep French interest in 
America from flagging during the progress of 
our war. How he managed to wring so 
much money from an exhausted treasury will 
always be a matter of wonder and gratitude, 
but he did not ask more than he was person- 
ally willing to perform, for he had loaned his 
country nearly all the money he could raise — 
about twenty thousand dollars. 

It was not until February 6, 1778, that the 
first treaty between the United States and a 
foreign power was signed. What a scene that 
must have been on March 20th of the same 
year, when the commissioners were presented 
to the king and came forward to receive their 
11 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 

recognition as the representatives of a nation 
which took its place, not by the divine right 
of kings, but in the name of the inahenable 
rights of the people ! Only one condition was 
stipulated, and that as much in the interest 
of the colonies as of France, that they should 
never return to their allegiance, and one recip- 
rocal obligation, that neither country should 
make peace with England without the con- 
sent of the other — an arbitration treaty that 
statesmen of our day find it hard to improve 
upon. It was not until September 3, 1783, 
however, that another "Treaty of Paris" 
gave us the precious boon of peace. It was 
signed by Franklin, Jay, and Adams, and to 
Franklin was assigned the task of explaining 
how the treaty came to be signed without due 
consultation with Yergennes. This he succeed- 
ed in doing, though English historians are 
still MTondering how the three clever Yankees 
managed to make their infant country come 
out of such a complex diplomatic situation 
with all the honors and most of the profits. 

On his return to America Dr. Franklin was 
enthusiastically greeted by all classes. Gen- 
eral Washington thanked him publicly and 
privately. He was elected president of Penn- 
sylvania a month after his return, and was 
reelected for two successive terms. 
12 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 

His last service, true philanthropist that he 
was, was for the cause of liberty — a petition 
to Congress for the abolition of the slave 
trade and the emancipation of slaves. Again 
we are reminded of Lincoln, who completed 
this noble thought. Two months later, April 
17, 1790, he passed away, and the nation he 
had served so faithfully and so well gave him 
such homage as had never before been paid to 
an American citizen. 

The following epitaph on Benjamin Frank- 
lin was written by himself many years before 
his death : 

The Body 

of 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Printer, 

Like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out, 

and stripped of its lettering and gilding. 

Lies here food for worms. 

Yet the work itself shall not be lost, for it will 

(as he believed) appear once more in 

a new^ and beautiful edition, 

Corrected and amended 

by 

The Author. 

. Mirabeau says, ** Antiquity would have 
raised altars to this mighty genius who alike 
was able to restrain thunderbolts and 
tyrants." 
What more can we say in conclusion and 
13 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 

epitomizing this great man save to repeat 
that he is the most typical American of us all, 
and the most complete representative of his 
time, as well as of his age ? For Howard was 
no greater philanthropist; Priestly had no 
keener interest in science, Franklin had the 
public spirit of a Turgot, and was a diplo- 
matist w^hom Talleyrand would not have 
despised. There have been greater men, 
perhaps, but none who have succeeded in so 
many lines of activity. 

Have I not conclusively shown that his 
great-great-granddaughter may be proud to 
claim descent from Benjamin Franklin, pa- 
triot, philanthropist, philosopher, physicist, 
diplomat, gentleman ? 



14 



A CABINET DINNER AT THE 
REPUBLICAN COURT 



A CABINET DINNER AT THE 
REPUBLICAN COURT 

AFTER the close of the Revolutionary 
War, General Washington observed 
with infinite concern the development of the 
infant republic, although until he became its 
President he did not participate actively in 
public affairs. He wrote to a friend: "Hav- 
ing happily assisted in bringing the ship into 
port, and having been fairly discharged, it is 
not my business to embark again on the sea 
of troubles." 

His desire to retire to private life was well 
known, yet from the moment of the adoption 
of the Federal Constitution, all eyes were 
turned to him as the one man capable of oc- 
cupying the highest office in the new nation. 
A distinguished Maryland patriot wrote to 
him, "We cannot do without you." Of him 
17 



A CABINET DINNER 

it might have been said, as it was said of 
Abraham Lincoln, that he was 

The nation's only soul 
For whom wrought ever since the race began 
The subtle energies of thought and power 
Toward the predestined goal. 

The struggle between duty and inclination 
was long and severe, but at the first election 
held under the Constitution, Washington v^as 
the unanimous choice of the people to be 
their President. It was his wish to avoid 
ostentation, but as we know his triumphal 
march to New York was one long ovation. 
At Trenton the young women and the 
matrons met to do him honor as he passed 
across the Delaware. On the twenty-third of 
April, 1789, he reached New York, and was 
received by Governor Clinton v^ith military 
honors among a vast concourse of people. 

Despite the fact that a rigid simplicity was 
insisted upon, complaints were soon heard 
that we w^ere adopting monarchical customs 
— establishing a "Republican Court" — and 
even the Society of the Cincinnati was criti- 
cised by a few over-zealous "patriots," who 
thought that they discerned in its organiza- 
tion an attempt to plant in the virgin soil of 
the republic the seeds of an order of nobility. 
18 



A CABINET DINNER 

Macaulay says that it is the duty of the 
historian "to make the past present, to bring 
the distant near, to call up our ancestors 
before us with all their peculiarities of lan- 
guage, manners and garb; to show us over 
their houses, to seat us at their tables, to 
rummage their old wardrobes." Let us fancy 
that we are entering the house of President 
Washington on some Thursday afternoon in 
the year 1789, and are unseen spectators at 
one of his Cabinet dinners. Naturally our 
first attention should be given to the host 
and the hostess. 

In describing General Washington we think 
at once of Houdon's profile, with Stuart's 
canvas for the full face and Trumbull's por- 
trait for the figure. We are all familiar with 
the fact that his presence was imposing, and 
that his stature was lofty, rising to six feet 
and three inches. His favorite dinner dress 
w^as a coat of black silk velvet, with embroid- 
ered satin waistcoat, and his shoe and knee 
buckles were of gold. His hair w^as pow- 
dered and gathered behind in a large silk bag. 
He received his guests with a stately bow, but 
avoided shaking hands, even with his clos- 
est friends. His manner was grave, almost 
sad, and inspired a feeling of awe rarely expe- 
rienced in the presence of any man. He spoke 
19 



A CABINET DINNER 

slowly and deliberately, not searching for fine 
words but choosing those best fitting his sub- 
ject. He was one upon whom 

Every god did seem to set his seal 
To give the world assurance of a man. 

Mrs. Washington — or Lady Washington, 
as she was generally called, — belonged to the 
Virginia order of aristocracy and, as Miss 
Dandridge, had been a belle in the Colonial 
Court at Williamsburg. As Mrs. Custis, the 
beautiful young widow, she had reigned su- 
preme among the chivalrous Virginians ; and 
now it is as the wife of the Commander-in- 
Chief and the President of a new nation that 
we acknowledge her gracious sway and bend 
to do homage to this fair gentlewoman. 

We have all read of how Colonel Washing- 
ton lost his heart to the charming widow, — 
for she was lovely to look upon and her man- 
ners were most engaging. It was not his first 
appearance in the train of Cupid, for at fif- 
teen he had become enamored of a maiden 
who bore the name of Frances, and to whom 
he indited an acrostic ; at seventeen he loved 
"a lowland beauty," as he called her; and 
later he transferred his affections to the 
Misses Sallie and Molly Cary, and to Betsy 
Fauntleroy, all handsome Virginia ladies ; but 
20 



A CABINET DINNER 

it was not until 1758 that the hero was con- 
quered by the bright eyes and fascinating 
manners — and, some are wicked enough to 
saj', the broad estates — of the young widow 
Custis. 

The arrival of Lady Washington at head- 
quarters at the close of each campaign was a 
much anticipated event, and when her car- 
riage was driven up, with her servants in 
scarlet and white livery, it seemed as if a ray 
of summer sunshine were piercing the clouds, 
particularly in the dreary days of Valley 
Forge and Morristown. She was often 
known to say that it had been her fortune 
"to hear the first cannon at the opening, and 
the last at the closing, of all the campaigns 
of the Revolutionary War." 

As she stands by the side of her husband, 
greeting their distinguished guests, we are 
reminded of Woolaston's picture — with her 
steinkirk or neck-cloth of sheerest linen, its 
ends tucked into the bodice of her satin- 
brocaded gown. 

First in order among those guests w^e see 
the Vice-President and Mrs. Adams. That 
eminent and successful lawyer, John Adams, 
was well versed in the etiquette of " loops and 
buttons," and we are tempted to fancy that 
court dress and court ceremonial pleased him 
21 



A CABINET DINNER 

well. His wife, Abigail, is worthy of a longer 
look. She was a w^oman of great personal 
beauty and high intellectual endowments. 
She was born in IT-i'i, a descendant of the 
early Puritan settlers, and in 1764 she mar- 
ried Mr. Adams. When he went to England 
on his difficult mission she accompanied him, 
and did much to represent the colonies so- 
cially. Again, when her husband became 
second in position to Washington, her wom- 
anly grace and dignity added not a little dis- 
tinction to his high office. One great charm 
of Mrs. Adams's conversation was the perfect 
sincerity apparent in all that she said. Her 
ready tact and her practical knowledge of life 
sustained her husband in many of the most 
trying cares of his position. Can we not 
almost see her to-day — having studied the 
Boston portrait — as she stands therein her 
dinner gown of celestial blue paduasoy over 
a white satin petticoat, with a large gauze 
kerchief crossed demurely over her bosom? 
Her hair is drawn back over a roll, a la 
Pompadour, and on her head is a puflf of 
gauze and a w^reath of artificial roses. 

Next we see Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of 
State. We are as familiar with Stuart's por- 
trait of him as we are with that of Washing- 
ton. We know how highly Washington 
22 



A CABINET DINNER 

esteemed this man, when he asked him to 
become a member of his Cabinet, and said : 

"I was naturally led to contemplate the 
talents and dispositions which I knew you to 
possess and entertain for the service of your 
country." 

Mrs. Jefferson was a widow when he 
married her, a Mrs. Martha Skelton, but she 
was only twenty-three, beautiful, and greatly 
admired. The story goes that, as two of her 
numerous suitors were approaching her house 
one evening they heard her playing on the 
harpsichord, accompanied by Jefferson's voice 
and violin. Some note in the voices seemed 
to tell them of the hopelessness of their woo- 
ing, and they sadly turned back. 

Jefferson was devoted to the violin. When 
his house was burned he asked a servant if all 
of the books had been destroyed, and the man 
answered: "Dey is, massa, but we saved de 
fiddle!" 

During the brief period of their married life 
Mrs. Jefferson made Monticello an earthly 
paradise for her young husband. Their 
daughter Martha married Thomas Mann 
Randolph, and John Randolph once called her 
"the sweetest young creature in Virginia." 

But who is the handsome man whom the 
President greets so cordially? Is it not 
4 23 



A CABINET DINNER 

Alexander Hamilton, restored to the favor of 
Washington after that singular incident at 
Morristown in 1781, when Hamilton, resent- 
ing a hasty reproof from his General, resigned 
his position as aide-de-camp on General 
Washington's staff? All of this unpleasant- 
ness is forgotten, and he holds the most im- 
portant place in the Cabinet — that of Secre- 
tary of the Treasury. This man of thirty-two 
is expected to bring order out of chaos, to 
put the shattered finances of the nation on a 
sound basis, — an herculean task. Washing- 
ton knew and appreciated his great talents. 
Robert Morris, one of the greatest financiers 
of America — who had been first selected for 
the office — approved the choice, and Hamil- 
ton's ability saved the country from ruin. As 
was said of him, like Moses of old he smote 
the barren rock of the national finances 
with the rod of a magician, and golden 
streams issued forth. 

Although under middle size, he was very 
erect, courtly, and dignified in his bearing. 
His hair was combed back from his forehead, 
powdered, and worn in a queue. His com- 
plexion was delicate and fair, his voice musi- 
cal, and his manner frank and impulsive. As 
he stands before us in his blue coat with gilt 
buttons, black silk small-clothes, and white 
24 



A CABINET DINNER 

silk waistcoat, we cannot but think of that 
fatal twelfth of July, 1804, when, after the 
duel with Burr, he passed from earth — one of 
the most illustrious men who ever figured 
upon the stage of human affairs. 

Mrs. Hamilton was born Elizabeth Schuy- 
ler, the second daughter of General Philip 
Schuyler and a granddaughter of John Van 
Rensselaer, the patroon. Among the distin- 
guished men wno visited her father's house 
there were many admirers of Miss Elizabeth, 
but the young West Indian bore away the 
prize. She -was a beautiful and charming 
woman, and there have been few marriages 
more congenial than that of Alexander Ham- 
ilton and Elizabeth Schuyler. 

Chatting with Mrs. Hamilton is the Secre- 
tary of War, Henry Knox, a soldier who 
commands our highest esteem and admira- 
tion. It v^as Knox who suggested the idea of 
perpetuating the memory of the toils and 
friendships of the war, and thus was founded 
the Society of the Cincinnati, whose vice- 
president he was through life. The general, 
we are told, was a large man, above middle 
stature, and slightly bow-legged. He wore 
his hair short in front, powdered and queued, 
and below his somewhat low forehead his 
small, dark eyes shone brilliantly. He had 
25 



A CABINET DINNER 

been wounded in the left hand, which he kept 
covered by a black silk handkerchief to con- 
ceal its mutilation. In every line of his 
strong face he showed his sturdy Scotch-Irish 
ancestry. 

Mrs. Knox had been a Miss Lucy Flucker, 
daughter of a loyalist. She was a remark- 
ably fine looking woman, with blooming 
c omplexion and brilliant black eyes . Although 
she was not tall, her dignity of manner — 
which some called hauteur — gave her a com- 
manding presence. Stuart, who painted a 
portrait of Knox, began one of her but 
became dissatisfied and would not finish it. 
Mrs. Knox and Mrs. Washington were dear 
friends, and the wife of the Secretary of War 
occupied a post of honor at the new 
"Court." It is said that Washington was 
not averse to listening to her wise and witty 
counsels, and that, with all her friendship for 
Mrs. Knox, Mrs. Washington was a bit jeal- 
ous of the charming Lucy. It may not be 
amiss to quote the description of her head- 
dress, recorded by a New England clergyman. 
" Her hair in front is craped up at least a foot 
high, much in the form of a chum, bottom 
upward, and topped off with a wire skeleton 
in the same form, covered with black gauze. 
Her hair behind is in a large braid, turned up 
26 



A CABINET DINNER 

and held by a large comb. She reminded me 
of the monstrous cap worn by the Marquis 
de Lafayette's valet, commonly called "the 
Marquis's devil ! " 

Of Edmund Randolph, the Attorney Gen- 
eral, and Mrs. Randolph, I have been able to 
find little of personal reminiscence, although 
they undoubtedly attended the Cabinet din- 
ners. 

Mr. Lear and Mr. Lewis, Washington's 
private secretaries, were always present. Mr. 
Lewis's mother was Washington's sister and 
some of his descendants are now living in 
New Jersey. 

At four o'clock promptly, no guest ever 
being w^aited for longer than five minutes — 
"My cook," Washington would say, "never 
asks whether the company has come but 
whether the hour has come" — this small 
gathering of distinguished men and women is 
ready to be ushered into the dining-room, a 
room which might perhaps seem homely to us 
had not a revival of the colonial style of fur- 
niture made us familiar with its quaint 
charm. In one corner stands a closet with 
glass doors, through which may be seen china 
and glassware, a conspicuous object being a 
great punch-bowl. Other china is decorated 
with figures of birds — doves, hawks and 
27 



A CABINET DINNER 

swallows — while the old sideboard bears a 
precious load of cut glass decanters, wine 
glasses and brandy glasses and "egg-nogg" 
bowls. Another corner is occupied by a tall 
clock which reaches nearly to the ceiling, 
while around the room are ranged small ma- 
hogany "tea-boards" or side-tables, which 
stand upright, like expanded fans, when not in 
use. Afterwards, at Mount Vernon, Wash- 
ington had a separate room for the Sevres 
and other china not in common use. One set 
was presented by the officers of the French 
army and was of dull white china, with a 
band of deep blue, and on each piece was the 
Order of the Cincinnati painted in delicate 
colors. 

Happily the colonial fashion of arranging 
the table has not come down to us, who so 
willingly follow most of the leadings of our 
distinguished fore-mothers. We shudder in 
contemplating the mythological figures and 
artificial flowers with which the festal board 
was decorated on such occasions. 

The President and Mrs. Washington always 
sat opposite each other on either side of the 
table, and the guests were arranged in the 
order of precedence, Mrs. Adams sitting on 
the right of the President, and the Vice- 
President on the right of Mrs. Washington. 
28 



A CABINET DINNER 

Next came Mr. Jefferson and the beautiful 
Mrs. Hamilton, and the others placed in due 
ceremonial order. The two private secre- 
taries always sat one at either end of the 
table. 

The menuyvsis seldom varied, and consisted 
of soup ; a boiled fish, followed by meats, 
game or fowls; the dessert, apple pies, pud- 
dings of various kinds, iced creams and fruit, 
with no "releves," "entrees," "sorbets," or 
"salades" to lighten its heaviness. It was in- 
deed a solemn feast, apparently unrelieved by 
anything resembling the famous "life saving 
station" of the dinners of President Hayes, 
made immortal by Mr. Evarts. Nor can I, 
without too great a strain upon my imagina- 
tion, regale j^ou with the brilliant bon mots 
v^hich passed gaily from mouth to mouth — 
for I fanc3^ the mirth was not hilarious. Not 
until the cloth was removed was a toast 
drunk. Then, with formal courtesy, the 
President drank to the health of each one by 
name, and "Health, sir," "Health, madam," 
and "Thank you, sir," "Thank you, madam," 
went around the table. Our ancestors, like 
the English, took their pleasures sadly. 

When, after another dreary silence, Mrs. 
Washington and the ladies withdrew, the 
same solemn and decorous stillness continued, 
29 



A CABINET DINNER 

save, perhaps, for an occasional witticism. 
Whether in these days the men preserve a Hke 
decorum after the departure of the dames I 
cannot tell for reasons which do not require 
any elucidation. 

An amusing custom of Washington at these 
state dinners has been preserved for us in 
memoirs. He always retained a fork in his 
hand after the removal of the cloth, and with 
this he continued to toy, striking the edge of 
the table from time to time. Of course no 
human being can explain why he found pleas- 
ure in such a performance, but great men 
seem to be addicted to odd table customs. 
General Scott had a way of leaning his left 
elbow on the table and pouring wine from one 
glass into another, I am told by a friend that 
a learned and distinguished Federal judge, 
who tells a story very attractively, usually 
rises at the conclusion, deliberately walks 
around his chair, and then resumes his seat. 
A volume might be written about the way of 
a man with his dinner, but I do not know- 
that women have any peculiar custom on 
those occasions unless it be that of dropping 
gloves and handkerchiefs, and compelling cor- 
pulent dinner companions to go on hands and 
knees to recover them. 

Up-stairs the ladies are drinking their 
30 



A CABINET DINNER 

after-dinner coffee, gossiping right merrily 
over the latest Paris fashion, at least three 
months old when it reaches them. The gen- 
tlemen join them, and here we leave them, the 
brave and courtly men and the beautiful 
women who graced the Cabinet dinners of the 
Republican Court in the days of simple 
dignity, of courtesy, refinement, and honor- 
able life, the unstrenuous days when we had 
no multi-millionaires to emulate in their 
feasts the prodigalities and the enormities of 
Lucullus and of the emperors who disgraced 
the imperial city in its time of decadence and 
extravagance. 



31 



MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 
THE PROGRESS OF NEW JERSEY 



MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 
THE PROGRESS OF NEW JERSEY 

SAINTE BEUVE once said that history is in 
large part a set of fables which men 
agree to believe in; but in these days men 
have given up believing in fables. Historical 
statements undergo a process of sifting ; and 
the winnowing, the sifting of the false from 
the true, is not weakening but strengthening 
history. 

Fiske says that we ought to be thankful 
that our forefathers did not burn their letters 
and documents, but only hid them in garrets 
and cellars. I could tell a tale, if I would, of 
the rescue not many years ago of a great 
accumulation of Franklin letters and papers 
which was saved by an observant w^oman — 
it was on its way to the paper mill — and 
which is now carefully preserved in the treas- 
ure house of an historical society in Pennsyl- 
vania. Before considering the subject which 
35 



MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 

has been assigned to me, let me bring to you 
as a colonial greeting a treasure from the 
past, which will, I trust, put you at once in 
closer touch with one of the men who 
" helped " in the early days — Governor Philip 
Carteret. Old letters are often eloquent with 
association and pathos, and they grow into 
an importance of which the writers never 
dreamed. 

It iis with sincere pleasure that I offer to 
you this letter written by Governor Carteret 
soon after his arrival from England in 1665, 
in which he appears in the guise of an ardent 
lover. The student of graphology could not 
fail to be intensely interested in this quaint 
epistle, and would decide at once that it came 
from a man straightforward, determined, firm 
to the point of obstinacy, with great simplic- 
ity of manner. The signature, with its 
flourish at the end and the large capitals, 
characteristic of the chirography of the day, 
indicate that the governor was not a little 
egotistical; but I am not attempting to in- 
dulge in a study of handwriting as an index 
of character. This is the letter : 

Elizabeth Town, August, 1665 
Fair Mistress Penelope — Believe me you are not forgot 
because I have lett some time pass before I have w^rit 
you, but it was scarce possible even tho' I had more than 
36 



MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 

ordinary mind to do so. Since I left you far away in 
Devon, not a day hath past in which your face doth not 
appear before me, and I have wisht myself back many 
times and oft from this barbarous country. I dare not 
declare my mind on this subject lest I give offence to the 
good people here about who aflfect to find it a Paradise, 

The Savages, or Indians as they are called, seem well 
inclined towards us, and one Oraton, a Sachem of great 
importance, we have had many dealings with, and w^e 
hope to live in unity and amity with hira. 

But 'tis not of this, my Penelope, that I fain would 
write you. My absence may, I fear, make you forget me, 
but consider how I love you, and nothing but knowing 
that when the good ship Philip sets sail again for these 
parts you will be on your way to me, can make the resi- 
due of my stay here tolerable. Give me a word of com- 
fort, and believe me sincere when I assure you I am, dear 
Lady 

Your everlasting Adorer, 

Ph. Carteret. 

The English Penelope did not brave the 
terrors of an ocean voyage of months to be- 
come the lady of the manor at old Elizabeth- 
town, forw^e shall see later that the Governor 
remained unmarried until 1681, when the 
widow of William Laurence of Long Island 
became his wife — a woman of more than 
ordinary attainments, who survived the 
Governor many years. 

As to the man Philip Carteret, who 
was he ? Whence came he ? Did he help or 
37 



MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 

hinder the progress of New Jersey in colonial 
days, the troublous, formation days of the 
commonwealth ? 

In 1664 — March 12, O. S. — a charter 
was granted to James, Duke of York and Al- 
bany, for all lands lying between the western 
bank of the Connecticut River and the east 
side of Delaware Bay, and in April of the same 
year a fleet was dispatched to put the Duke 
in possession. The expedition was com- 
manded by Colonel Richard Nicolls — a hin- 
derer of whom we shall hear more hereafter — 
upon whom the government of the Province 
had been conferred by the Duke of York. 
New Amsterdam at once became New York, 
and both Oranges Albany, thus preserving 
the titles of the great grantee. But before 
the royal Duke was actually in possession of 
the territory, he had granted to Lord John 
Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, "the por- 
tion of land lying on the westward of Long 
Island and Manhitas Island bounded on the 
east part by the main sea and Hudson's Riv- 
er, and upon the west by the Delaware Bay or 
River" — in other words, our own New Jersey 
— "said part to be called Nova Caesarea or 
New Jersey" — a compliment to Lord George 
Carteret who had so ably defended the island 
of Jersey against the Long Parliament in the 

38 



MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 

civil war in England. So we come to Philip 
Carteret. He was a relative of Sir George, 
but we have little knowledge of his early life 
in England or of his experiences there, except 
that he was known as Captain Carteret, He 
received his commission as Governor of New 
Jersey in 1665. A storm drove his ship, the 
Philip, into Chesapeake Bay, but in July of 
the same year she arrived in New York, and 
a few days later anchored off of the point 
which he named "Elizabethport," where he 
landed his thirty emigrants. At the head of 
his little band, and with a hoe over his 
shoulder, he marched to the spot he had se- 
lected for a settlement, two or three miles 
inland, and which he named "Ehzabeth," 
not after the Queen, but in honor of the wife 
of Sir George Carteret. 

From an old affidavit we learn that when 
Governor Carteret arrived, there were but 
four families in New Jersey and that "few or 
more would have come thither had it not 
been for him." At this point one of our " hin- 
derers" comes to the front in the person of 
Colonel Richard Nicolls. You will remember 
that when he came over to New Amsterdam 
at the close of August, 1664, he fully believed 
that the province of New Jersey w^as also in 
his jurisdiction, not having heard of the deed 
6 39 



MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 

to Berkeley and Carteret ; and there at once 
arose a conflict of authority between him and 
the newly arrived Governor Carteret. The 
latter seems to have possessed an iron will, 
for he calmly assumed the reins of government, 
ignoring the authority of Governor Nicolls, 
and naturally made a bitter enemy of him. 

Philip Carteret's simplicity of manner 
was exemplified when he went from his vessel 
to the settlement with that hoe on his shoul- 
der to show his people that their work was 
his also. He at once began his task of 
colonization, sending messengers to New 
England and elsewhere, inviting settlers to 
come to the new province. 

The ship Philip having by this time re- 
turned from England (but unhappily with- 
out the fair Penelope) with more people and 
chattels, we find New Jersey well to the front 
then, as now. I may not speak of the trials 
and tribulations of these early settlers, of the 
Indian raids and the quarrels over titles and 
lands. But it was not an altogether joyless 
place and one historian goes so far as to say 
"It is worthy the name of Paradise because 
it hath no lawyers, physicians or parsons." 

It was not until 1668 that Governor 
Carteret considered it necessary to have any 
regular legislation for his people. In April 

40 



MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 

of that year he issued a proclamation 
requiring each town to send two representa- 
tives to the general assembly to be held May 
11, at Elizabethtown. This first Assembly 
lasted just four days, an object lesson to 
the legislators of our day who w^ould have 
lengthened the sitting to as many weeks or 
months. 

The next session w^as held in November, 
1668, and after this brave beginning we have 
no record of another session for seven years, 
although there were probably meetings 
whose doings were not recorded. It was at 
this crisis that the clash between Governor 
Carteret and Governor Nicolls occured, and 
Carteret was advised to go to England and 
to explain matters at headquarters. This he 
did, leaving John Berry as Deputy Governor 
during his absence. 

Scarcely, however, had he started when 
another small hinderer appeared on the hori- 
zon in the person of James Carteret (a nat- 
ural son of Sir George) who announced 
himself as " President of the country" and 
prepared to take up the reins of government. 
His reign was short, for Philip, the real Gov- 
ernor, soon returned (in 1674) completely re- 
instated, and Lovelace, who had succeeded 
Nicolls in New York, was forced to recognize 

41 



MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 

the rights of the Governor of Nova Caesarea. 
But when everything seemed at peace, an- 
other hinderer appeared on the horizon — 
Edmond Andros, w^ho in 1674 was Governor 
of New Netherlands, or (as the "New" name 
was universal) — New York. His aim seems 
to have been to regain possession of lost New- 
Jersey, and his surest way to accomplish this 
was to arrest and imprison our sturdy gov- 
ernor, Philip Carteret. 

Of this most interesting chapter of our 
histor3'- I may give only the briefest outline. 
On the 30th of April, 1679, a party of soldiers, 
sent to Elizabethtown by Andros, dragged 
the Governor from his bed, brutally mal- 
treated him, and carried him to New York 
where he was kept a close prisoner until May 
27, when a special court was convened to try 
him, on the accusation of "having persisted 
and riotously and routously endeavored to 
the exercise of jurisdiction over his majesty's 
subjects." Carteret pluckily refused to abdi- 
cate, and demanded his release. The jury 
brought in a verdict of "not guilty," but he 
w^as not allowed to resume his authority in 
the province until the matter was referred to 
England. 

Meanwhile Sir George Carteret had died, 
but after some delay the Lady Elizabeth, his 
42 



MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 

widow, wholly disowned the acts of Andros 
and obliged him to write a letter to Governor 
Carteret in November, 1680, relinquishing all 
claims to the province. 

Thus we find our Governor brave in spite 
of his hinderers, although he lived but a 
short time to enjoy his triumph, for he died 
in 1682. His widow, who had formerly lived 
on Long Island, returned there to her friends. 

Governor Carteret w^as buried at Eliza- 
bethtown, and from his will, dated December 
10, 1682, we learn that he was survived by 
his mother in England, Rachel Carteret, to 
whom he bequeathed his property on the Is- 
land of Jersey. At her death it w^as to descend 
to the children of his brothers and sisters. As 
an evidence of his charitableness, we learn 
from the will that he directed that "two 
quarters of wheat should yearly for ever be 
distributed to the poor of the Parish of St. 
Peters, in the Island of Jersey." One cannot 
help wondering if this strange bequest still 
continues to be followed after a lapse of more 
than two centuries. 

I have perhaps dwelt too long upon Philip 
Carteret who helped and not long enough 
upon Nicolls, Andros and the rest who "hin- 
dered," but let us "step lightly on the ashes 
of the dead " and be thankful for our sturdy 

43 



MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 

old Governor, who though not faultless is 
entitled to his niche in the hall of fame — 
Philip Carteret. 

Our Quaker ancestors furnish us with 
much interesting historical data, but I can 
speak briefly of one who "helped" right no- 
bly in the early times "that tried men's 
souls" — John Fenwick. 

In June, 1675, John Fenwick, a Major in 
Cromwell's army, came over to West Jersey 
in the ship Griffen. He also suffered much 
from the persecution of the "hinderer" And- 
ros. Fenwick was a close friend of William 
Penn, and came with the intention of pur- 
chasing the Berkeley and Carteret interest in 
New Jersey, and making it a Colony of 
Friends, as the Quakers preferred being called. 

The letters which passed between Fen- 
wick and Andros are very interesting, but I 
can quote from one only, a reply which Fen- 
wick sent to a summons from Andros, order- 
ing him to appear before him and his Council 
at New York. 

He says : " I did not know that the gover- 
nor of New York had anything to do with 
me, and I will obey nothing but what shall 
come of his Majesty the King or his Highness 
the Duke of York, and I am resolved not to 
leave my house unless I am carried away dead 
44 



MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 

or alive and I dare any one to come and take 
me at their peril." 

In spite of this brave stand a warrant 
was issued and authority granted to "pull 
down, break, burn or destroy" Fenwick's 
house, and full power to fire upon him if he 
resisted. He was then imprisoned, and after 
many trials was released on parole. He lived 
until 1684, having in 1682 sold all his landed 
estate in the province to WilHam Penn. The 
deed from Fenwick to Penn is in the library 
of our ow^n Historical Society of New Jersey, 
and it is a document of much interest and 
value. 

I should be glad to speak of another docu- 
ment, "the great concession of 1676," which 
some assert is of as much importance as the 
Declaration of Independence, uttered just one 
hundred years later. This, however, justly 
demands a paper of its own, and I may only 
refer you to "Johnson's Historical Account 
of the First Settlement of Salem " for the full 
story of Fenwick's agreement with the set- 
tlers, as well as the letters of William Penn, 
for they are too long for quotation, and if I 
should repeat them here, I might be justly 
accused of wandering from the subject. I 
might also speak of the Scotch element and 
of some of the "helpers" who belonged to 

45 



MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 

that sturdy race ; but I am reaching the limit 
of my time and subject — the end of the sev- 
enteenth century. In 1702 the two Jerseys 
were finally united in one province. 

While it is not strictly pertinent to Carte- 
ret or to Fenwick, I may be allowed to quote 
a few titles of books published at this time, 
in order that we may sympathize v/ith our 
forefathers who had a taste for literature: 
" Crumbs of Comfort for the Chickens of the 
Covenant" ; " High Heeled Shoes for Dwarfs 
in Holiness"; "The Spiritual Mustard Pot 
to make the soul sneeze with devotion." I 
am not sure that such books either helped or 
hindered the progress of New Jersey in the 
early days. 



46 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 

BODIES of men sometimes become famous, 
irrespective of the distinction of the in- 
dividuals who compose them. We all know 
of the barons who compelled King John to 
sign Magna Charta at Runnymede, but we 
know almost nothing of the personality of 
any particular baron. I am quite aware 
that in recent years some iconoclast has 
demonstrated, to his own satisfaction at 
least, that there is a doubt whether the 
Magna Charta story is altogether what we 
have always believed it to be. I shall not 
give up my faith in it lightly, but I shall not 
waste time in discussing the question now. 
The Signers of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence have won a fame not unlike that of the 
Runnymede barons. It was almost a fortui- 
tous circumstance that they happened to be 
the subscribers of the revered but faded 
49 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 

document which, almost illegible, as to signa- 
tures at least, reposes in a sealed wrapper 
among our national archives. When most 
of them were chosen to their seats in the Con- 
tinental Congress it was not foreseen that 
they would become the immortals of our his- 
tory. Some of them were leaders, some were 
commonplace but worthy patriots, and some 
were mere accidents. Their autographs are 
sought for eagerly, command exalted prices, 
and are exhibited with pride by the conceited 
owners. The value of the autographs varies 
inversely with the notoriety of the writer, so 
that while John Adams and Benjamin Frank- 
lin are within the reach of the moderately 
wealthy, Thomas Lynch the younger and 
Button Gwinnett, of w^hom nobody ever 
heard except the burrower in American his- 
tory, are attainable only by magnates and 
millionaires. A friend of mine was asked by 
the Librarian of Congress how much a col- 
lection of the autographs of the Signers 
would cost, and the answer was, that a com- 
plete collection of full autograph letters 
signed, all of the year 1776, would be worth 
a million dollars. He might well have said a 
billion, for such a collection never existed and 
can never exist. I confess that while I admit 
the peculiar value of a letter — an A. L. S. in 
50 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 

the slang of the collector — beyond that of a 
mere document or of a "letter signed," I am 
unable to understand why a Signer's letter of 
1776 is more desirable than one written in 
1777 ; yet the letter of 1776 is regarded as 
deserving the blue ribbon. In my judgment 
the interest of the contents is vastly more im- 
portant than the mere date. 

There were five members of the New Jersey 
delegation in the Continental Congress who 
were fortunate enough to have the privilege 
of affixing their names to the greatest docu- 
ment in American history; and few know 
how nearly they came to missing it alto- 
gether. The Continental Congress of the 
Revolutionary days was a casual sort of 
Congress, its membership changing continu- 
ally according to the whims of the States and 
of the members themselves, most of whom 
were obliged to make many sacrifices in order 
to attend the sessions. On February 14, 
1776, New Jersey took it into its sovereign 
head to resolve that WilHam Livingston, 
John DeHart, Richard Smith, John Cooper 
and Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant "be dele- 
gates to represent this province in the Conti- 
nental Congress, for the space of one year or 
until others shall be legally appointed in their 
stead ; " and on the 20th of February, 1776, 
51 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 

three of these gentlemen attended in Phila- 
delphia and presented their credentials. The 
Public Journal of Congress, as printed, —a 
provoking record,— does not give the names 
of the faithful three, the compiler manifestly 
considering it a matter of no importance. A 
little more than four months later, the 
"province" made what is colloquially styled 
"a clean sweep" of all these delegates, and 
on June 21, 1776, the Provincial Congress at 
Burlington assembled, "proceeded to the 
election of delegates to represent this colony 
in Continental Congress, when Richard 
Stockton, Abraham Clark, John Hart, and 
Francis Hopkinson, Esqr., and Dr. John 
Witherspoon were elected by ballot to serve 
for one year, unless a new appointment be 
made before that time," and followed its of- 
ficial announcement of the fact with a ringing 
resolution, sajang to the newly chosen men : 
"The Congress empower and direct you, in 
the name of this Colony, to join with the 
delegates of the other colonies in Continental 
Congress assembled, in the most vigorous 
measures for supporting the just rights and 
liberties of America; and if you shall judge it 
necessary or expedient for this purpose, we 
empower you to join with them in declaring 
the United Colonies independent of Great 
52 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 

Britain, entering into a confederation for 
union and common defence, making treaties 
with foreign nations for commerce and assist- 
ance, and to take such other measures as may- 
appear to them and you necessary for these 
great ends ; promising to support them with 
the whole force of this province." The cau- 
tious Jerseymen, mindful of the autonomy of 
the "Colony," added, however, this signifi- 
cant proviso: "Always observing that, 
w^hatever plan of confederacy you enter into, 
the regulating the internal police of this 
province is to be reserved in the Colony 
legislature." 

On the 28th of June, 1776, less than a week 
before the adoption of the Declaration, 
Francis Hopkinson appeared in Congress 
with these resolutions, and was forthwith 
made a member of the committee for prepar- 
ing the plan of confederation; and on the 
same day the committee to prepare the Dec- 
laration submitted its "draught." The ex- 
asperating Public Journal does not disclose 
the presence of any other New Jersey delegate 
at any time on or before July 4th. The 
"Declaration," as there set forth in full, pur- 
ports to have been signed by all five, and it is 
prefaced by the statement that "the follow- 
ing Declaration was by order of Congress, 
53 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 

engrossed and signed by the following- mem- 
bers, ^^ but when they actually signed it does 
not appear. It is now a matter of general 
knowledge that in the statement I have 
quoted, the printed Journal is misleading and 
inaccurate, and that the signatures were not 
affixed until some later time, — Matthew 
Thornton, of New Hampshire, signing as late 
as November 4, 1776, and Thomas McKean, 
of Pennsylvania, not until 1781. Indeed, the 
Secret Journal under date of August 2, 1776, 
contains this record: "The Declaration of 
Independence being engrossed, and compared 
at the table, was signed by the members." 
Those who are curious about the subject will 
find it exhaustively considered by Mellen 
Chamberlain in his paper on "The Authenti- 
cation of the Declaration of Independence," 
in the proceedings of the Massachusetts His- 
torical Society, November, 1884, reprinted in 
the volume of Mr. Chamberlain's essays en- 
titled "John Adams, with Other Essays," 
published in 1898. 

But it is not my purpose to enter upon an 
historical study with respect to the Declara- 
tion, or of the circumstances attending its 
adoption ; I intend only to say a few words 
about the New Jersey Signers, whose auto- 
graphs are now before me, bringing to my 
54 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 

mind and to my imagination the personality 
of each one of the lucky individuals who 
came in at the eleventh hour, but who 
achieved as much as all the others. 

At the head of the delegation was Richard 
Stockton, of Princeton, one of the most emi- 
nent lawyers in the Colony, whose ancestors 
as early as 1680 owned several thousand 
acres of land in New Jersey, including the site 
of the present town of Princeton. He was a 
leader at the bar and in Colonial politics ; he 
was the man who, while in Scotland, per- 
suaded John Witherspoon to reconsider his 
refusal to become the President of Princeton 
College, and for his services received the 
thanks of the Trustees of that famous institu- 
tion. He did his best to keep peace between 
the Colonies and the mother country, and in 
1774 he sent to Lord Dartmouth a paper 
containing An Expedient for the Settlement of 
the American Disputes. It proved to be about 
as useless as most of the fair and reasonable 
suggestions which were made at the time by 
cool and sagacious patriots who, in spite of 
their sagacity, indulged in the illusion that 
the quarrel between the Colonies and the 
Crown could be settled without bloodshed. I 
do not find in this attempt to make peace 
any justification for the assertion, made by 
8 55 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 

careless observers, that he was lukewarm in 
his patriotism. It has been said that "his 
silence during the opening debates on the 
question of independence leads to the conclu- 
sion that at first he doubted the expediency 
of the Declaration." When it is remembered 
that he did not become a member of Congress 
until the day the draft of the Declaration 
was submitted and only six days before its 
adoption, the futility of the "conclusion" is 
so manifest that the accusation needs no re- 
futation. It afi'ords another instance of the 
tendency of thoughtless persons to arrive at 
"conclusions" on premises utterly insufli- 
cient. The cruel injustice of the "conclu- 
sion" is abundantly demonstrated by the 
story of Stockton's life. On November 30th, 
1776, at night, Tories took him prisoner at 
Monmouth, his temporary home. He was 
thrown into prison in New York, was abused 
and severely treated, and he never regained 
his health. His fine library w^as burned by 
the English and his lands were laid waste; 
his fortune was annihilated, and he died at 
Princeton in 1781, when he was only a few 
months past the age of fifty, — a great man, 
an honor to New Jersey, and deserving of the 
admiration of his countrymen for all time. 
His portrait is preserved in the [gallery of 
56 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 

which Princeton University is justly proud. 
It is said that the head of this portrait was 
cut out by an English officer during the Revo- 
lution, and for a long time it was supposed 
to have been lost, but it was discovered at 
last behind the picture where it had fallen 
when the decapitation took place. Fortu- 
nately it was not so injured that it could not 
be restored. Many years later it was repro- 
duced in an etching by H. B. Hall, after a 
likeness furnished to Dr. Emmet by Mrs. 
George T. Olmsted, of Princeton, Stockton's 
granddaughter; and the portraits of the 
Signer extant in the present time are all 
founded upon this likeness. 

Stockton inherited from his father the 
lovely mansion known as "Morven," which 
is still preserved in almost its original condi- 
tion, in spite of the iconoclasm of these bust- 
ling days ; a beautiful example of the simple 
and dignified architecture of the eighteenth 
century. The boasted wealth of the pluto- 
crats could never duplicate it. It must never 
be permitted to fall into decay, for it is even 
better than an autograph, and if the throngs 
of visitors who year after year frequent the 
Princeton Inn, standing within a stone's- 
throw of the Signer's home, will look upon it 
as they ought to do, it will always be an 
57 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 

object lesson in patriotism. It is fortunate 
that it has remained in the possession of 
loyal descendants of the Stockton family, who 
know its historical value; and we may rely 
confidently on them to see to it that it shall 
never be destroyed. It would have been a 
great thing if all of the representatives of our 
Revolutionary leaders had been as mindful of 
the w^orth of their possessions as have been 
the Stocktons of to-day, justly esteemed and 
distinguished in our contemporary history. 

I cannot, in justice to my own sex, refrain 
from referring to Annis, the wife of Stockton 
and the daughter of Elias Boudinot. She was 
lovely in person and, for those days, a literary 
light. She addressed a poem to Washington 
after the surrender of Yorktown, which he 
acknowledged in his stately fashion. She 
also w^rote the ode beginning "Welcome, 
Mighty Chief, Once More," which the young 
ladies of Trenton sang as they scattered 
flowers before the "Father of his Country" 
on his way to his inauguration in 1789. 
If the verses are not of the highest poetic 
order, we must remember that the men could 
not or did not do much better. 

I am not ashamed of my Stockton auto- 
graph. He is what the dealers call "rare," 
and few of his letters survive. Mrs. Olmsted 
58 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 

had one, reproduced in Brotherhead's "Book 
of the Signers," and Mr. Dreer had one, also 
reproduced in one of Brotherhead's books. 
But almost all of us must be content with the 
documents. My own is a long bill of costs in 
the suit of Woodward vs. Allen, filed May 
27, 1775 — a paper thirteen inches by four. 
The bill amounts to the disproportionate 
sum of £5, 14s, 6d ; and at the end, in 
Stockton's hand, is written : " I Tax this Bill 
of Costs at five pounds fourteen shillings 
Proclamation Money." It is amusing to 
think of the Signer busying himself with such 
trifles as "bills of costs." 

John Witherspoon's name follows Stock- 
ton's on the roll, and I might easily devote a 
volume to the story of his honorable life. 
The fact that he was President of Princeton 
gave him a fame apart from that which he 
enjoys as a Signer. Descended from John 
Knox, he w^as prominent in Scotland as a 
Presbyterian minister and author; and in 
1766 he declined to come to Princeton, In 
1768 he yielded to Stockton's persuasive 
powers, and he was inaugurated to fill the 
seat of Burr and Edwards just one hundred 
years before that other distinguished Scotch- 
man, James McCosh, came to fill the chief 
ofiice in the College of New Jersey. The story 

59 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 

of his life is too well known to need recital ; I 
will not dwell upon it. He was "as high a 
son of liberty as any man in America." No 
one ever had a shadow of a doubt about his 
attitude concerning independence. It has 
been well said of him that if the greatness of 
a man is to be measured by the influence he 
has exerted on other minds, John Wither- 
spoon must be remembered as one of the fore- 
most men of the Republic during its heroic 
period. He presided at the Commencement in 
September, 1794, but eight weeks later, on 
November 5, he passed from life ; ** veneratus, 
dilectus, lugendus omnibus,'^ as you may 
read upon his tombstone in the quiet ceme- 
tery where repose so many of the men who 
have given lustre to the fame of Princeton. 
His colossal statue stands in Fairmount 
Park, Philadelphia. There was no more dis- 
tinguished Signer. For two years before his 
death he was blind, but he enjoyed his farm 
near Princeton, which he called ''Tusculum,'* 
in the old-fashioned classical manner of the 
day. The house still stands, somewhat 
altered and modified, but it is substantially 
the same as it was in the days of its builder. 
I have only an ancient deed executed by him 
in 1786, but I have seen with pleasure a num- 
ber of his autographs, including a letter in 
60 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 

the possession of a graduate of Princeton, in 
which he speaks kindly of my friend's great- 
great-grandfather, and oflfers to be his surety 
to the extent of sixty pounds sterling, which 
in those days was a goodly sum. 

Francis Hopkinson, statesman, law^yer and 
poet, was more identified with Philadelphia 
and Pennsylvania than with New Jersey, but 
he lived for some years at Bordentown, and 
during that period he was one of New Jersey's 
Congressmen. With this exception and a 
service in the Provincial Congress for a short 
time, he was not at all identified w^ith New 
Jersey. Hopkinson was not only a lawyer 
and a judge, but he was familiar with the 
science of his day — rather a funny sort of 
science — and also with music and painting. 
He composed airs for his own songs, and I 
love him most for his humorous ballad ' ' The 
Battle of the Kegs," published in 1778, de- 
scriptive of the alarm caused by the attempt 
of certain Bordentow^n patriots to destroy 
the English ships at Philadelphia by means of 
torpedoes inclosed in kegs and floated down 
the Delaware. He died in 1791, at the age of 
fifty-four. We always think of the Signers as 
venerable men, but Hopkinson was under forty 
when the Declaration was fulminated. He 
was a versatile man, and notwithstanding 
61 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 

his Pennsylvanian proclivities, New Jersey 
may well be proud of him. I am glad to have 
an autograph letter of his, even if it is dated 
September 20, 1786, addressed to the Presi- 
dent of Pennsylvania, asking for payment of 
his salary as Judge in Admiralty. 

These men — Stockton, Witherspoon, and 
Hopkinson — you may find described fully in 
all the encyclopaedias and Dictionaries of 
Biography, whose details I do not care to 
reproduce ; but there are scant memorials of 
John Hart and Abraham Clark. They are the 
obscure signers, with whom no one except the 
expert is well acquainted. Many of the other 
signers are in the same category ; few of our 
day can remember even their names. 

John Hart was a plain and honest farmer, 
■who dv^elt in Hopewell Township. He won 
the title of "Honest John Hart," and he was 
an early patriot. When the New Jersey dele- 
gates faltered in 1776, and their faltering was 
the cause of the new election of June, 1776, 
to which I have referred, he was named for 
Congress because he was known to be an 
enthusiastic advocate of independence. Hart 
suffered sore trials by reason of his patriot- 
ism. His stock and farm were destroyed by 
the Hessians, his family was forced to fly, and 
he hid in the forest, never venturing to sleep 
62 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 

twice in the same place, and suffered the 
greatest distress until Washington won at 
Trenton and at Princeton in 1777. Then he 
returned to his farm. He was tall and well- 
proportioned, with very black hair and blue 
eyes, and he was much loved by his neigh- 
bors. Hart had a grist, saw and fulling mill 
at Rocky Hill, which were all destroyed by 
the British. He died in 1780, and was buried 
in what is called "John P. Hunt's burial 
ground," about two and a half miles from 
his residence ; but I believe there is no stone, 
except a red square one, said to have been 
placed at the head of the grave by General 
James P. Hunt. 

The only grudge I have against Hart is 
that his autographs are so scarce and that he 
never had a real portrait. Only five Hart let- 
ters are known to be extant. Dr. Emmet, the 
dean of autograph collectors, is under the im- 
pression that no genuine letter or document of 
Hart is in existence "that does not show his 
lack of scholarship, either in spelling, misuse 
of capital letters, or want of punctuation, and 
that his signed letters appear to have been 
written by some one writing a very similar 
hand to that of the Signer, without betray- 
ing his deficiencies." Mr. Gratz, the great 
Philadelphia collector, to whom we humble 
9 63 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 

persons pay much reverence, says: "Hart 
was a poor speller, using capitals at his 
pleasure, and in utter disregard of rules. 
These errors are numerous in both of the let- 
ters I have of his writing. I have seen some 
orders of the Assembly of New Jersey that 
were signed by Hart, but written by a clerk, 
whose handwriting does bear some re- 
semblance to Hart's. I can scarcely believe 
that he ever had a private secretary, but 
when he was Speaker of the Assembly of New 
Jersey, and Chairman of the Council of Safety, 
it is likely that he utilized the services of the 
clerk and his assistants. I have one such 
specimen, and have seen several others, the 
bodies of which are written respectively by 
different persons." 

I have in my possession two autographs 
of Hart. One is a bill rendered by Andrew 
Robinson to the Province in 1761, upon 
which is endorsed "Ex & al'd John Hart." 
The other is quite unique, because it is a 
document signed by both Abraham Clark 
and John Hart — two Signers. It appears 
to be in Clark's handwriting, and it reads 
thus: 

" These are to Certifie that Hendrick Fisher 
Esq. hath attended the Committee of Safety 
two days since the 20th Instant for which he 
64 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 

is to receive twelve shills. dated the 22d of 
April 1776. 

Abra. Clark 
John Hart 

To either of the Treasurers appointed by 
Congress." 

It is endorsed "Examined and allowed — 
Jesse Hand, Silas Condict." Notwithstand- 
ing my professed indifference to 1776 auto- 
graphs, I cannot refrain from calling attention 
to the date. 

The few autograph documents of Hart, like 
the five letters, adorn the most choice collec- 
tions. Those who care for more detailed in- 
formation about Hart's autographs will find 
much lore in Dr. Lyman C. Draper's "Essay 
on the Autographic Collections of the Signers 
of the Declaration of Independence and of the 
Constitution," published in 1889. 

There is no real portrait of him. In 1870 
Mr. Burns published a set of portraits of the 
Signers, copied, engraved, or etched by H. 
B. Hall, the famous engraver, for Doctor 
Emmet. Emmet said that the Hart portrait 
was taken from Hunt's American Biographi- 
cal Panorama. After the issue of the Burns 
portrait, Mr. Paschal, of West Philadelphia, 
a great-grandson of Hart, said of it: "His 
(Hart's) descendants know by tradition that 
65 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 

there was, years ago, a portrait of him in ex- 
istence, and as one of them I am willing to 
accept this engraving as from the long lost 
picture, because the family likeness is seen 
distinctly in the descendants. I believe, there- 
fore it is correct and am willing to accept it 
as authentic and will do all in my power to 
prove the same, while some of my relatives 
still live to assist me, though at an old age." 
The Bums portrait is before me now, and I 
am bound to say that notwithstanding Mr. 
Paschal's pardonable willingness to accept it, 
I am not convinced by it. This handsome, 
courtly, well-dressed, aristocratic personage 
was never John Hart, the Jersey farmer, the 
sturdy patriot. I can understand how the 
great-grandson, with pardonable pride, might 
"accept" it, because of a fancied resemblance 
to contemporaneous descendants, but to me 
it is very much in the same category as the 
celebrated autograph of John Phoenix, which 
was "written by one of his most intimate 
friends." I am reminded of the portrait of 
Robert Smith, Attorney General, in the De- 
partment of Justice in Washington, which is 
reproduced by Mr. Rosenthal in his admirable 
series of etchings, but of which he says: "No 
portrait of Robert Smith exists. The picture 
by St. Memin, we are assured by Mr. J. Donell 
66 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 

Smith, of Baltimore, a grandson of the At- 
torney General, is a portrait of Isaac Smith, 
of Accomac County, Virginia, and that which 
purports to be his portrait in the office of the 
Attorney General was painted entirely from 
his imagination by the artist employed." 
Still, it is pleasant to have even a pseudo- 
portrait; for we cannot be content with 
merely a view^ of Hart's monument and one of 
a church which he built at Hopewell, all 
that Brotherhead condescends to give. 

And finally we come to Abraham Clark, 
whose autograph I have already mentioned. 
Clark's three portraits, now under my 
eyes, have very little resemblance one to 
another. He lived in Elizabeth, and the pic- 
tures of his modest little house are familiar to 
the students of the Signers. He must have 
been a man of power. Born in Elizabethtown 
in 1726, he had a fine education, was devoted 
to mathematics and civil law, and engaged in 
surveying and conveyancing. It is said that 
he gave legal advice gratuitously and w^as 
called "the poor man's counsellor," but I 
doubt if that sort of advice is worth any 
more than is paid for it. He was Sherifif of 
Essex County and served in the Continental 
Congress for many years. He was an influ- 
ential member of the Legislature of his State 
67 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 

for several years — a leader, as they call it 
now — and he was responsible for what was 
known as "Clark's law," which regulated 
court practice and excited the angry pas- 
sions of all the real lawyers of the State. He 
was called the "Father of the Paper Cur- 
rency," which leads me to believe that he may 
have been a sort of Bryan of the eighteenth 
century. He was a delegate to the Conven- 
tion which framed the Federal Constitution 
in 1787, but he did not attend, and he was 
opposed to the adoption of the Constitution. 
He served in Congress from 1791 until his 
death, and moved a resolution to prohibit all 
intercourse with Great Britain until full com- 
pensation was made to our citizens for the 
injuries sustained by them from British armed 
vessels and until the western ports should be 
delivered up. He died from sunstroke in 
1794. Somehow he impresses one with a 
doubt as to his wisdom — but not as to his 
sincerity. That he meddled with practice 
acts, although not a lawyer, that he advo- 
cated a paper currency, that he antagonized 
the Constitution, and that he committed him- 
self to the absurdity of "non intercourse" as 
a remedy for wrongs, indicate to me that he 
was more positive than reasonable. I can 
imagine what sort of man he was — forceful 
68 



THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 

but erratic, honest and patriotic but wrong- 
headed — and he has reaped his reward in 
being practically forgotten by succeeding 
generations. 

Compared with the representatives from 
the other states, the New Jersey Delegation of 
Signers is, to speak modestly, extremely re- 
spectable — even distinguished, when placed 
side by side with the delegation from New 
York — William Floyd, Philip Livingston, 
Francis Lewis, and Lewis Morris — none ot 
whom could rival either Stockton or Wither- 
spoon in the matter of intellectual powder. 
But New York was almost a Tory prov- 
ince, and its most eminent men were dis- 
posed to hesitate about declaring inde- 
pendence. The New Jersey men were all of 
them chosen with independence clearly in 
view. They were sent to Congress for the 
purpose of making a final announcement of 
the perpetual severance of the bonds which 
had linked us to the mother country. They 
were distinctly the apostles of the new dis- 
pensation, and every one of them deserves a 
lofty seat in the national hall of fame. 



69 



THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND 
OF YESTERDAY 



THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND 
OF YESTERDAY 

A FAMOUS minister of the gospel once 
began his discourse by announcing that 
his text divided itself in two parts, and that 
he would consider the second part first, which 
he proceeded to do at great length. After- 
wards he apologized to his hearers, assuring 
them that he would take up the first part 
on some future occasion. In choosing my 
own text I will follow the clergyman's exam- 
ple, and will speak chiefly about the Woman 
of Yesterday, and if time fails me to tell of 
the "New Woman," you will be able to sup- 
ply the omission because you know person- 
ally all about her charm, her ability, and her 
entrancing qualities. 

Speaking of the "New Woman," recalls to 
my mind a remark of one of New York's emi- 
nent men — also an eminent Virginian, and an 
author whose books are delightful. At a din- 
ner some years ago, John Sergeant Wise had 
73 



THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 

assigned to him the toast of "The New 
Woman." There were many speakers who 
talked tediously, and Wise had been reserved 
for the last, in order to hold the audience. 
When his time came it was long past mid- 
night, and he said: "My friends, I am to 
speak of the 'New Woman'; but (and he 
looked at his watch) it is the old woman I am 
thinking of just now." It is needless to say 
that I was not present on that occasion, but 
I am relying on the authority of one who 
was there, and who remembers the laughter 
which followed. 

More than two thousand years ago Plato 
delivered himself of an opinion in regard to 
the intellectual character of women, and from 
his day until the present time there have been 
countless dissertations on the absorbing sub- 
ject, more or less sapient and instructive — 
usually less. The opinion of the Greek phil- 
osopher was in conformity with the mythol- 
ogy of his people, which gave Pallas the 
higher place over Ceres and put the Muses by 
the side of Venus and of Diana. In the Faery 
Queen we become well acquainted with 
Spenser's loveliest heroine, the teacher of the 
Satyrs, who plied her gentle wit with 

Wisdome, hevenly rare 
Her discipline of faith and verity, 
74 



THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 

and what Satyrone saw when he repaired to 
his native woods, 

When he, unawares, the fairest Una found 
(Straunge lady in so straunge habiliment) 
Teaching the Satyrs, while he sat around 
Trew^ sacred love, w^hich from her sweet lips did 
redound. 

Had we read none of the biographical gos- 
sips but known Milton only as an author, we 
should never have imagined him as excluding 
woman from that "hill side" (education), 
laborious indeed at the first ascent, "else so 
smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospects 
and melodious sounds." Certainly the collo- 
quy of the Wondrous Lady with Comus or 
the delineation of Adam's "Immortal Eve" 
are somewhat at variance with his reputed 
conduct towards his daughters. 

Gibbon writes to Miss Holroyd : "I am 
really curious to have an account of your 
studies and occupations. What books do 
you read, and how do you employ your time 
and your pen ? I have often observed that 
women read much more than men, but for 
want of a plan or method their reading is of 
little benefit." This neglect of study is the 
occasion of Kant's description of learned 
women: "They use their books like their 
watch, namely to wear it, that it may be 

75 



THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 

seen; they wear one, though it commonly 
stands still, or is not set by the sun." 

The satires of Swift, Pope, Boileau, and 
Young on woman amuse us greatly, but it is 
strange that Swift, after his acquaintance 
with Miss Van Homrigh, should have clung 
so blindly to the mere undemonstrative quali- 
ties — silence, discretion, modesty. The crea- 
tors of Beatrice, Una and The Lady were 
richer observers. But there is much about 
Swift which defies understanding. 

Miss Edgeworth in her Letters for Literary- 
Ladies, written nearly a century ago, laments 
the change for the worse as to this point from 
the days of Elizabeth, and Bulwer in the 
Edinburgh Review, in 1831, said that the il- 
literacy of women is answerable for the great 
preponderance of novels in literature as well 
as for extensive political corruption ! 

A celebrated archbishop described woman 
as a creature that cannot reason and pokes 
the fire from the top. In olden daj'-s, indeed, 
she was less troubled about her soul than she 
is now, possibly because it was then consid- 
ered doubtful whether or not she possessed 
such a thing. A German v^oman-novelist 
says that this consciousness of the Ego in 
woman is of recent growth, unknown to our 
mothers and our grandmothers who compre- 
76 



THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 

bended their sensations as little as a cabbage 
comprehends the reason of its growth. 

Readers of tradition and students of myth- 
ology will find abundant evidence of the fact 
that among all peoples, from the time of 
Adam until the present, women were organ- 
ized leaders. 

When Lycurgus was law-giver in Sparta, 
women possessed much power and liberty, 
and history records that while the men were 
away from home engaged in warfare, the 
land became rich and powerful under the con- 
trol and management of the Spartan women. 

It has been written that women took little 
or no part in the intellectual development of 
Greece, but we do not forget Aspasia, who 
was the compeer of the ablest statesman of 
her age, nor Hypatia, mathematician and 
philosopher, w^ho kne^v more of the Divine 
Essence than did Cj^ril, Patriarch of Alexan- 
dria, w^ho had her stoned and torn in pieces 
by his monks. 

In feudal times ladies of rank were taught 
to weave and to embroider, and old account 
books bear many entries of paj^ments for 
their working materials. Matilda of Flan- 
ders, wife of William the Conqueror, wove 
into the Bayeux tapestrj' a pictured chronicle 
of the conquest of England. This curious 

77 



THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 

piece of work, two hundred and twenty-two 
feet long, is embroidered in yams, and 
Matilda evidently had few colors at her dis- 
posal, the horses being of such remarkable 
hues, blue, green or yellow, that our modern 
art w^orkers would bewail it as hopelessly un- 
assthetic. 

The deeds of Joan of Arc need no recital. 
Mark Twain, in his Life of "the Maid," says : 
"She was truthful w^hen lying was the com- 
mon speech of men. She was honest when 
honesty w^as become a lost virtue. She was 
true in an age that was false to the core. 
She was perhaps the only entirely unselfish 
person whose name has a place in profane 
history." 

Pardon me for leading you along paths so 
remote, but it is to the past that the 
historian must turn by instinct to re-create 
the days which are dust and ashes, to set in 
dead hands the weapons that rust has eaten, 
and to endeavor to re-tenant those houses 
whose bars the great Thief has broken 
through. 

Many are the names of which I might 
speak, — of women of feudal days and of the 
Renaissance, names like Marie de France and 
Christine de Pison, w^riters and translators, 
but I must hasten to those whose lives touch 
78 



THB WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 

our own more closely, and from whom we 
claim descent. 

The subject is so fruitful that I find it 
difficult to select a field which has not already- 
been gleaned. We have been told of woman 
in the home, her trials during the settlement 
of our country, her courage and her bravery, 
her amusements and her accomplishments, 
of the apple-parings and corn-huskings in the 
autumn, and the wildly exciting singing 
school in the winter, and, leaving stern New 
England and glancing at Maryland and Vir- 
ginia, w^e find that balls and country dances 
were the delight of our Southern fore- 
mothers. Smart functions they were, al- 
though they did begin in broad daylight. 

Then in Philadelphia, we hear of the Assem- 
bly balls as early as 1780, and the Mischianza 
■which took place there on May 18, 1778, is 
famous enough to be worthy^ of a special 
paper devoted to its gay scenes. 

Her "fancy work," too, deserves a word, 
the "samplers" and "mourning pieces," with 
their weeping willows and funereal urns with 
pious little verses below^ them. 

Cutting "watch papers" was a favorite 

amusement, and some of them were painted 

with sentimental legends. We are told that 

Jefierson once dropped his watch in the 

79 



THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 

water, and the watch paper being ruined, he 
cries "My cursed fingers gave it such a rent 
as I fear I shall never get over," and trusts 
that the fair Belinda will give him another 
paper of her own cutting. 

"But," you ask me, "w^as she clever, this 
eighteenth century maid ? Did she w^rite 
books ? " 

Shakespere portrays his women as holy, 
wise and fair, but from book making they re- 
frained, and although radiant with intelli- 
gence and ready for any emergency, our fore- 
mothers, as a rule, followed the example of 
the Shakesperian heroines. 

Anne Bradstreet is the earliest American 
poet of whom we hear. In the first London 
edition of her book she is spoken of as "The 
Tenth Muse, lately sprung up in America." 
One verse must suffice to illustrate her style. 
It was written during her husband's absence 
from their Ipsw^ich home. 

My head, ray heart, mine eyes, my life, my more, 

My joy, my magazine of earthly store, — 

If two be one, as surely thou and I, 

How stayest thou there, while I at Ipswich lie ? 

The Governor's affection for his wife was 
so strong that after her death in 1675 he 
remained a widower for three years, a long 
period of mourning in Puritan New England. 

80 



THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 

Another literary woman, who will probably 
be remembered by posterity in connection 
with her quarrel with John Adams, was 
Mercy Otis, afterwards Mrs. Warren. She 
gloried in the title of "Historian," but she 
also wrote tragedies, and in 1790 a little vol- 
ume was printed entitled "Dramatic and 
Other Poems," dedicated to "George Wash- 
ington, President of the United States," 
which brought Mistress Mercy a very court- 
ly letter of thanks. Her style seems verbose 
and heavy to us, though as a satirist her por- 
traits are bold and trenchant. So stern a 
little patriot was she that even "The Society 
of the Cincinnati " came in for a bit of satire, 
but she had not the heart to censure her be- 
loved Washington when on the thirteenth of 
May, 1783, he became the honored President 
of a Society which has continued to have 
most worthy successors in the Presidential 
chair. "Liberty ! " was her cry, and had she 
been asked to name'the crowning work of her 
life she would have said, " My History of the 
Revolution." She never deviated from the 
sternest patriotism. We "Daughters of the 
American Revolution" may well take her as 
our model of loyalty. 

As an historical relic the following letter by 
the "Mother of her Country" is of interest 

81 



THE WOMAN OF TODAY AND OF YESTERDAY 
to US, as it is one of the few in existence. 

"Philadelphia, February the 3d, 1793. 

"My dear Fanny: The Southern post not getting in 
this week, I have not had the pleasure to hear from you ; 
we are all tolerable well. The wnter has been remark- 
able warm, which occasions the season to be very sickly. 
1 hope you and the children are well. Mr. Blair is arrived 
here and tells his friends that a great number of our 
acquaintances are dead below. The winter has been so 
warm here that the farmers have been plowing all win- 
ter, and we are in fear that there will not be ice to fill the 
ice houses in the city, which will be a great disappoint- 
ment to us in the warm season. Ice is the most agree- 
able thing we can have here. 

" I hear from Mrs. Stuart and the girls often. She tells 
me that she has not seen Mr. Fairfax since he was at 
Hope Park with me, but does not say where he is — 
whether he has got to England or not. Mrs. Harrison 
is w^ell. She often enquires very kindly after you. Mrs. 
Mercer is in town, but she is so often sick that I see her 
but very seldom. My love to the major. I hope ere this 
that he has got the better of the spitting blood you 
mentioned in your last. 

"My love to your brothers and sisters, in which the 
President joins. Kiss your dear little babies forme and 
believe me, my dear Fanuy, your most affectionate, 

" M. WASHINGTON. 
"Mrs. Frans. Washington." 
Endorsement : 
"From Mrs. M. Washington, February 8, 1793." 

Annis Boudinot, a New Jersey girl, after- 
ward Mrs. Richard Stockton, was to poetry 
82 



THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 

inclined. Read her "Verses on Peace," "The 
Surrender of CornwalHs," not forgetting the 
"Triumphal Ode" to the Commander in 
Chief, for which Washington thanked her 
most charmingly in these words : 

" You apply to me, my dear Madam, for absolution, as 
though I was your Father Confessor, and as though 
you had committed a crime, great in itself, yet of the 
venial class. You have reason good, for I find myself 
strangely disposed to be a very indulgent ghostly advis- 
er upon this occasion, and notwithstanding you are a 
most oflfending soul (that is, if it is a crime to write 
elegant poetry) yet, if you will come and dine with me 
on Thursday and go through the proper course of peni- 
tence which shall be prescribed, I will strive hard to as- 
sist in expiating these poetical trespasses on this side of 
purgatory." 

We can think of her at "Morven," her 
Princeton home, writing most poetical let- 
ters to her husband during his absence in 
London and signing them "Emilia," to which 
he as gallantly replied, subscribing himself 
"Lucius." 

Turning from the dames of long ago, let us 
glance for a moment at our twentieth century 
sisters. I should like to paraphase Longfel- 
low and to say : 

Wives of great men oft remind us 
They may make those men sublime ; 

That if husbands could not find us, 
They'd be failures half the time. 
83 



THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 

Men must recognize the fact that many 
valuable inventions are due to women. Mrs. 
Harriet Strong, for example, began by invent- 
ing a corset and ended by taking out patents 
for dams and reservoirs. A woman invented 
the Burden process for making horseshoes. 
The woman of to-day is practical and does 
not waste precious hours of toil over sense- 
less tapestries and eye-blinding embroidery. 
She is acquiring a store of health which 
means so much to the next generation. The 
doll-wife — poor little Dora Copperfield — is 
no longer in evidence as shew^as in the "lady- 
like" period as distinguished from the "wo- 
man" period of the present. 

A writer in an English magazine predicts 
that when another century rolls around, 
-women will be six feet tall, while the average 
height of man w^ill be five feet nothing. The 
woman of A. D. 2000 will be broad and 
heavy in build, and will be very proud of her 
large feet, thick wrists, powerful limbs and 
great muscular development, while men will 
have grown vain of their trimly corsetted 
waists, their pink and white complexions, 
and their soft and gentle voices. This will be 
due to the dominant influence of the feminine 
in the children who are given to the world by 
mothers who are really stronger than their 

84 



THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 

husbands. In the coming time it may be 
that every woman will be required to marry 
and to support two husbands, one of whom 
must be a useful, domesticated creature, cap- 
able of looking after the household while 
the wife is away earning money to keep the 
home together, while the other will be an 
ornamental personage, whose duties are to 
act as companion or "gentleman help" to 
the mistress and ruler of the house. Cooks 
will then be no longer at a premium, as food 
tablets will take the place of the elaborate 
dishes of the past, and we shall be able to 
finish a six course dinner in as many minutes. 
Attractive as these prospects may seem to 
those restless spirits who are always crying 
out for "progress," I cannot refrain from 
congratulating myself and you, my sisters, 
that v^hile we may not always be as heroic 
and as serious as the women of yesterday, w^e 
enjoy the piquancy and the privileges of the 
women of to-day, and w^e are not likely to be 
subjected to the dire consequences of advance- 
ment and reform so gloomily foretold by the 
scribe from whose prophecy I have quoted. 



85 



AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 



AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 

'T^HE way of the historian is hard. When 
-*- I was asked by the Daughters of the 
American Revolution to tell them of some 
battle of revolutionary times occurring in 
New Jersey in the month of March, I thought 
that the task would be easy, and that I could 
without difficulty find the record of some im- 
portant conflict which marked the month of 
storms. I busied myself in history, searched 
eagerly for information in the numerous biog- 
raphies of Washington, thumbed my well- 
worn cop3^ of Lossing's Field Book, and 
pored diligently over Barber and Howe's 
Historical Collections, with their amusing 
illustrations and amazing text; but I was 
unable to discern anything remarkable about 
the month of March in the way of New 
Jersey battles. Many thrilling events came 
89 



AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 

to pass and many valorous deeds were done 
in those days in the old Province of Nova 
Caesarea, but they all seem to have happened 
in some other month. Why March ? Is it 
because Caesar was killed on the Ides of March 
of which the soothsayer bade him beware? 
Is it because, hj some impulse which defies ex- 
planation, the fathers decreed that every 
President of the United States should assume 
his office on the Fourth of March ? It is a 
most unjustifiable day, coming in an inclem- 
ent and disagreeable season ; an inconvenient 
day, a ridiculous day. The fathers did many 
"^^onderful things and their choice of Inaugu- 
ration Day is not the least marvellous of their 
performances. I will admit that they were 
almost infallible, — although they used to 
quarrel among themselves very much after 
the fashion of modern statesmen — but I ven- 
ture to suggest that they fell into lamentable 
error about Inauguration Day. Surely they 
would have been more considerate if they had 
anticipated the fatal colds which dignitaries 
in future years would contract in doing hom- 
age to the coming chief. Washington City is 
very pleasant in the later spring, and Con- 
gress might well amend the law if it can spare 
the time from enacting legislation about rail- 
ways, rivers and harbours, and the awful 

90 



AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 

trusts which trouble so many easily worried 
people. 

In despair, I feared that I might be com- 
pelled to draw upon my imagination and 
invent a battle ; but I hesitated lest I should 
share the fate of the ambitious school boy 
who, in competition for the prize offered "for 
the best composition" presented the follow- 
ing essay : 

I will tell you the story of George Washington. He 
was born February 12, 1726. He was educated at West 
Point and, after graduating, served in the Mexican War. 
When the French and India War broke out, he was made 
Captain and General and Major, and performed many 
important services. In 1759 he resigned and married 
Miss Martha Augusta and lived on his estate at Mount 
Vernon. In 1743 he was elected President and took an 
active part in public affairs. He fought many battles, 
and finally captured General Lee and his whole army, 
April 19, 1865. He finally surrendered at Yorktown and 
the war ended in 1760. He served two terms as Presi- 
dent but refused to serve a third time having taken a se- 
vere cold from a ride in the rain. He died at Mount 
Vernon, aged sixty-seven. 

This reads very much like a newspaper 
obituary notice or a sketch from the pages of 
Who's Who. 

I come back to my quest of a battle. 
Although it receives its name from the god ol 
war, the month of March was not a battle 
month in the Revolution. In March, 1776, I 

91 



AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 

note the fights at Hutchinson Island, Georgia, 
and at Nook's Hill, Massachusetts; in 1777, 
there were Perth Amboy, Punk Hill, and 
Westfield, New Jersey, and Wood's House 
and Peekskill, New York ; in 1778, there was 
Thompson's Bridge, New Jersey; in 1779, 
Briar Creek, Georgia, and West Greenwich, 
Connecticut ; in 1780, Paramus, New Jersey ; 
in 1781, Clapp's Mills and Wetzel's Mill, and 
Guilford, North Carolina; in 1782, Morris- 
ania, New^ York, and Tom's River, New Jersey. 
There were also the two I intend to relate 
briefly. They were all rtiinor engagements, 
and no one but the antiquary ever heard of 
them, except Guilford. 

It is suflEicient for me to speak of two small 
fights — or, more accuratel3% of one fight and 
one massacre — which took place in March, 
1778 — the skirmish at Ouinton's Bridge, 
March 18, and the attack at Hancock's 
Bridge, March 21. Both of them occurred in 
Salem County, New Jersey. They are de- 
scribed in Barber and Howe's book, the ac- 
count being taken from Johnson's History of 
Salem — books which seldom meet the eye of 
any one save the collector of Americana. 

Towards the close of February, 1778, a 
detachment of British troops came down 
the Delaware from Philadelphia, then the 
92 



AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 

headquarters of King George's army, to 
Salem, thirty-five miles away. There were five 
hundred men, commanded by Colonel Aber- 
crombie of the Fifty-Second Regiment. Their 
purposes were predatory, and they plundered 
at will; they were also spying out the re- 
sources of the country. After a few days, 
they returned by water, as they had come, 
carrying their booty with them. 

On March 17, 1778, a force selected from 
the Seventeenth and Forty-fourth Regiments, 
mostly Scotchmen, numbering between twelve 
hundred and fifteen hundred, went down the 
river under the command of Colonel Charles 
Mawhood of the Seventeenth, aided by 
Majors Sims and Simcoe. They encamped at 
Sharptown, and next morning they marched 
into Salem, expecting to surprise Colonel 
Anthony Wayne, who had charge of the mili- 
tia in that part of New Jersey. They could 
not catch that wary fox napping, and he de- 
clined to be taken unawares. As soon as 
Mawhood held Salem, the Loj^alists, or Tories, 
gathered about him, and made up two com- 
panies, who, that they might not be mistaken 
for Regulars, wore a uniform of green, faced 
with white, and cocked hats with a broad 
w^hite binding; and they were known as 
"Greens." From them he learned that there 
93 



AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 

were about three hundred militia at Quin- 
ton's Bridge, posted on the south side of 
Alloway's Creek, under Colonel Benjamin 
Holmes; and he resolved, as he said, "to 
chastise the insolent rebels," as he was 
pleased to call the American people, "for 
daring to show resistance to his Majesty's 
arms." He robbed the farmers of horses 
enough to equip a troop. 

Holmes was not to be taken bj^ surprise 
any more than Wayne, and he made such 
preparations as he could to meet the enemy. 
On March 18th, before dajdight. Major 
Simcoe with his battalion advanced to a 
point about half a mile from Quinton's 
Bridge, and there in a swamp and in the 
woods on the bank of the creek, and also in a 
two-story brick house and a barn, the main 
body hid, thus forming an ambuscade, which 
later on proved to be fatal to many of the 
militia. When the arrangements were com- 
pleted, a few of the red-coats and some of the 
light-horsemen came out, riding and march- 
ing down the road in a taunting manner, 
behaving as if they were challenging their 
foes to a contest. 

Captain William Smith, of the Second Bat- 
talion of Salem militia, was in command. 
His men were aroused to anger, and were 
94 



AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 

eager to attack the provoking British. They 
had been instructed to hold their ground and 
defend the bridge. But a Httle Frenchman, 
Lieutenant Decoe, persuaded Smith to go 
over and "drub the insolent rascals." Smith 
got on his horse and called to his men, who 
with more courage than wisdom, and wholly- 
unsuspicious of the trap, rushed after him, 
across the bridge, in a disorderly column, 
with no attempt at military order. Smith 
called on his men to hurry, saying, "We will 
have them before they get to Mill-hollow," — 
a ravine about tv^o miles from the bridge. So 
on they went, militia-like, more a mob than 
an army, — looking not in the barn, or the 
house, or in the swamp, but childishly pursu- 
ing what they believed to be a fleeing foe. 
Scarcely had they passed the house, when 
from house and barn and from behind fences 
poured a withering fire. Smith was brave 
enough, and he vainly strove to rally his men; 
but their surprise was complete, and he could 
not form them into line. Out came the light 
horsemen from the woods, but now the rebel 
horses, with loyal attachment to the Ameri- 
can cause, refused to advance. They did not 
like the noise of combat and they punished 
their captors by declining to go to the 
front. The militia, fighting in small squads, 
13 95 



AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 

retreated across the bridge, with a loss of 
between thirtj'^ and forty men. 

The loss would have been greater had not 
Colonel Elijah Hand, of the Cumberland 
militia, arrived most opportunely. He had 
been informed by Holmes of the arrival of the 
British in Salem, and hurrying to Quinton's 
Bridge, reached there with his regiment just 
as the battle was at its height. Occupying 
the trenches which Smith's men had unwisely 
abandoned, he poured such a fire upon the 
British that their advance was checked. His 
two pieces of artillery did good service. 

Just here was displayed a signal act 
of bravery which deserves especial mention. 
Private Andrew Bacon, after the militia of 
Smith had crossed the bridge, seized an axe 
and set himself to the task of cutting the 
draw so that the enemy could not effect a 
passage. He persevered in his chopping, 
under a fierce fire, until the draw was de- 
stroyed; and then as he retreated to the 
trenches he received a wound which made him 
a cripple for life; but he was past eighty 
years when he died. His heroism completely 
saved the day. Unable to cross the bridge, 
the British gave up the fight and retired to 
Salem. 

Mawhood was chagrined, and determined 
96 



AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 

to send Simcoe forward the next day with all 
the men who could be spared from Salem. 
Holmes and Hand resolved that "no British 
soldier should eat bread or set his foot" on 
their side of AUoway's Creek, as long as there 
was a man left to defend it. During the re- 
mainder of the day and that night they 
strengthened their position and arranged 
their plans. At ten in the morning the Brit- 
ish advanced in battle array, their bands 
playing, in order, Chinese fashion, to intimi- 
date their rustic antagonists. Holmes had 
placed his men in their intrenchments in such 
a way that he could fire upon the invaders 
from the front and on both flanks. In their 
effort to gain the bridge, the British were so 
assailed by musketry and by the two invalu- 
able pieces of artillery, that they -were thrown 
into confusion, and very soon abandoned 
the fight and retreated again to Salem. 

Mawhood now renewed the congenial occu- 
pation of plundering the farmers, in which he 
w^as more successful than he was in actual 
warfare. A day or two after his repulse, he 
addressed to Colonel Hand a characteristic 
and impudent letter. The fatuity of the or- 
dinary English officer during the Revolution 
passeth all understanding. After his decisive 
repulse, he says, with a mighty self-assurance, 

97 



AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 

** Colonel Mawhood * * * proposes to the 
militia at Quinton's Bridge and the neighbor- 
hood, the officers as well as private men, to 
lay down their arms and depart, each to his 
own home." He proceeds to promise, if that 
be done, to go back without further depreda- 
tions and to pay for the cattle, hay, and com 
which he has taken. If his proposal is de- 
clined, he announces his purpose to attack, 
to bum and destroy the houses of the citizens, 
and to "reduce them, their unfortunate 
wives and children, to beggary and distress," 
and he adds a list of the names of those who 
"will be the first objects to feed the vengeance 
of the British nation." 

A silly and stupid creature this Mawhood ; a 
type of the slow-witted English officer of his 
day and generation; one of the dull and 
pompous martinets who vainly supposed 
that they could overcome a brave and intelli- 
gent people by waving a sabre and crying 
out " Disperse, ye rebels, disperse ! " The reply 
of Hand was dignified and determined. After 
calling attention to the inhumanity exhibited 
at the battle of the Bridge, he says : "Your 
proposal that we should lay down our arms, 
w^e absolutely reject. * * * Your threat 
to wantonly burn and destroy our houses 
and other property, and reduce our wives 
98 



AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 

and children to beggary and distress, is a 
sentiment which my humanity almost forbids 
me to recite, and induces me to imagine that 
I am reading the cruel order of a barbarous 
Attila, and not of a gentleman, brave, gen- 
erous, and polished, with a genteel European 
education." I wish that I could quote the 
whole letter, for it is marked by a simple elo- 
quence and a wonderful calmness of tone un- 
der severe provocation. Mav^hood did little 
to carry out his threats, but what he did was 
characteristic. 

There were about four hundred militia at 
Hancock's Bridge, and Mawhood conceived 
the plan of making a night attack upon 
them. Major Simcoe, with a force of regu- 
lars and Tories, was sent for the purpose, 
with orders to "spare no one — put all to 
death — give no quarter." The British w^ere 
carried by boats for a part of the way, and 
after a short, rapid march, reached their des- 
tination to find that the militia had de- 
parted, with the exception of a small guard 
quartered in the house of Judge Hancock. 
Entering the house, they quickly mastered the 
little force, and killed the Judge, a few non- 
combatant Quakers, and the guard of some 
twenty -five. But few escaped or were made 
prisoners. Most of them were slaughtered 
99 



AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 

as they slept, or murdered as they vainly 
endeavored to save themselves, for the deed 
was nothing short of murder, the killing be- 
ing wholly unnecessary. After this valiant 
performance, the plunderers went back to 
Philadelphia, carrying the fruits of their rob- 
beries. 

Years later Simcoe — who became lieuten- 
ant governor of Upper Canada — attempted 
in his "Journal" to excuse his butchery, and 
to take great credit to himself for his achieve- 
ment, saying airily of his slaughter of non- 
combatants — "Events like these are the real 
miseries of war." Of the final withdrawal 
of the troops from Salem County, he says: 
"The enemy, who were assembled at Cohan- 
sey, might easily have been suppressed, but 
Colonel Maw^hood judged, that having com- 
pleted his forage with such success, his busi- 
ness was to return, which he effected." True 
enough ; he went forth to steal, and his suc- 
cess lay in that enterprise, not in honourable 
warfare. If he had been a soldier, and not a 
mere marauder, he could easily have over- 
whelmed with his superior numbers and his 
well-drilled soldiery the raw and undisciplined 
troops of Holmes and Hand. In fact, he 
failed miserably. 

The affair at Hancock's Bridge was really 
100 



AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 

not a fight; it was a massacre. But the 
story of the Salem expedition reveals the 
courage and patriotism of the citizens of New 
Jersey. The motto " dulce et decorum est pro 
patria mori'^ applies as well to those farmer 
boys with their fowling pieces as to the 
trained soldiers of the Continental line. 
Trivial as these contests seem in comparison 
with the struggles of great armies in the war 
of 1861-1865, they speak to us of the brav- 
ery and fortitude of our ancestors, and kindle 
in our hearts an admiration for those sturdy 
patriots who lived in "the times that tried 
men's souls." 



101 



POOR HUDDY: A BRIEF STUDY OF 
A NEGLECTED HERO 



POOR HUDDY : A BRIEF STUDY OF 
A NEGLECTED HERO 

AT a "Tea" given by the Nova Caesarea 
Chapter in Newark, I gave a short ac- 
count of two Revolutionary engagements — 
for they cannot be called battles — which 
took place during the month of March, 1778, 
in Salem County, New Jersey. I called atten- 
tion to the remarkable dearth of battles in 
that martial month, and casually referred to 
a fierce little conflict which occurred in Mon- 
mouth County on March 24, 1782. Perhaps 
it may not be amiss to recall to your memory 
the salient points of a little drama which to 
my mind is one of the most interesting in the 
whole war; I mean the fight at the Block 
House at Tom's River, and its valiant defense 
by Captain Joshua Huddy, followed by his 
capture and brutal execution by the British. 
Volumes have been written about Nathan 
Hale and John Andre, who seem to have been 

105 



POOR BUDDY 

chosen as the typical martyrs of their re- 
spective countries ; and a great deal of mis- 
placed sympathy has been lavished upon the 
Englishman — no doubt because he was 
young, clever and handsome. But he deliber- 
ately perpetrated a deed which has always 
been regarded as a military crime, punishable 
by death, whether committed by a private 
soldier or by a major general, and when he 
was detected and seized he basely endeavored 
to bribe his captors. The name of Huddy is 
forgotten. He was not a spy ; he was neither 
a British aristocrat nor a New England 
school teacher ; he was only poor Huddy, an 
humble citizen of New Jersey, and his name is 
not one to fill the trump of fame. 

Let us look aw^ay from the quiet Quaker 
City where Washington was passing the win- 
ter, away from New York, where Sir Henry 
Clinton was aw^aiting the pleasure of the 
British Ministry, to the county of Monmouth 
and the little village of Dover, on Tom's 
River where, with a force of twenty-three 
men, Huddy guarded a rude block-house 
equipped with four small pivot-mounted 
cannon. The reason for the erection of a 
fort, if it may be called by that name, at 
this quiet spot was, that it was the site of 
the salt works built by Thomas Savadge for 

106 



POOR BUDDY 

the State of Pennsylvania, and salt was in- 
dispensable for the army. 

Huddy had been placed in command of a 
company of artillery in September, 1777, and 
had been a scourge of the Tories. In the 
summer of 1780, one Tye, or Titus, a mulat- 
to, who had gathered around him a number of 
negroes and loyalists, came with about sixty 
men to Colt's Neck and attacked Huddy's 
home. The Captain and one servant-maid, 
Lucretia Emmons, defended the house cour- 
ageously, and Tye received a wound in the 
wrist which later caused his death, from lock- 
jaw. The Tories set fire to the house, and the 
gallant defenders w^ere compelled to surren- 
der. While being transported in a boat, 
Huddy leaped overboard near Black Point, 
swam ashore, and escaped. He was not a 
man to be intimidated by mere numbers. 

About the middle of March, 1782, a force 
of forty refugees, with eighty armed sailors, 
set out from New York in whaleboats with 
the purpose of destroying the primitive fort- 
ress at Tom's River and incidentally of firing 
the hearts of the loyalists in that neighbor- 
hood. On landing, on the midnight of March 
23d, they were joined by another band of 
armed Tories, and evading Huddy's scouts, 
they reached the block-house on Sunday, 

107 



POOR HUDDY 

March 24th, and summoned the little garri- 
son to surrender. The American commander 
promptly refused, and the attack followed. 
The conflict was short and bloody. Over the 
sharpened logs which formed the inefifective 
wall of the little fort swarmed the assailants, 
only to be repulsed by pike and musket, with 
a loss of two officers. Back they charged, 
and the fort was crimsoned with the blood of 
its sturdy defenders. But the powder gave 
out, and the little band was overwhelmed. 
Having done "all that a brave man could do 
to defend himself against so superior a num- 
ber," Huddy swallowed the bitter pill and 
surrendered with the sixteen men left to him 
out of the original twenty-three. A trifling 
battle it was when compared with Antietam 
and Gettysburg, but surely it is notable in 
our annals. The heroism of twenty-three 
really surpasses the wholesale heroism of 
hundreds of thousands. 

The Tories burned the block-house, the 
mills, the salt--works, the store-house, and 
every dwelling but two in the village. On the 
brigantine "Arrogant," justly named, the 
prisoners and some of the villagers were 
transported to New York; and Huddy was 
cast into the old Sugar House Prison, a place 
forever famous and infamous in our history. 
108 



POOR BUDDY 

He was removed thence to the guard-ship 
"Brittania," and put under the charge of one 
Richard Lippincott, a Tory refugee, captain 
of a loyalist company. On April 12, Huddy 
was hurried to Gravelly Point, at the foot of 
the Navesink Hills, about a mile north of the 
Highland light-houses. Three rails were 
placed in the form of a gallows, and Huddy, 
after he had written his will on the head of a 
barrel, mounted the barrel and was hung. It 
was pretended that he was executed in return 
for the killing of one Philip White ; but it was 
only a shallow pretense, for White was cap- 
tured and was shot while trying to escape in 
a time when Huddy was a prisoner in New 
York. Upon Huddy's heart was affixed this 
lying placard : 

We, the refugees, having long with grief beheld the 
cruel murders of our brethren, and finding nothing but 
such measures daily carrying into execution, — we, there- 
fore, determined not to suffer without taking vengeance 
for the numerous cruelties, and thus begin, and I say, 
may those lose their liberty who do not follow on, and 
have made use of Captain Huddy as the first object to 
present to your view ; and further determine to hang up 
man for man, while there is a refugee existing. Up goes 
Huddy for Philip White. 

I am not one of those who confidently 
believe that the Tories were alw^ays wrong 
and the Whigs always right ; in the calmness 

109 



POOR HUDDY 

of this century we may willingly own that 
neither party was perfect. But a study of 
this episode in history convinces me that 
there can be no pardon for this slaying of a 
brave soldier. It was simply a wanton, in- 
human murder of one of the manliest and 
truest men. It is sad to know that for his 
dastardly deed, this Lippincott creature re- 
ceived as a reward a grant of three thousand 
acres of Canadian land, upon w^hich part of 
the City of Toronto is built. I wonder that 
the inhabitants are not haunted by the ghost 
of Huddy. 

As the fatal noose was fastened about his 
neck, Huddy cried out: "I shall die innocent 
and in a good cause," while the cur Lippin- 
cott swore at his men because they would not 
pull the rope ; and himself dragged aloft the 
body of his victim. When Lippincott, whose 
name has justly perished, returned to New 
York, he reported that he "had exchanged 
Huddy for one Philip White." 

All Monmouth County called out for 
revenge. A petition from leading citizens was 
presented to Washington demanding instant 
retaliation, and at a council of war held on 
April 19th, twenty-five general and field-offi- 
cers "agreed that retaliation was justifiable 
and expedient." A majority desired the sur- 

110 



POOR HUDDY 

render of Lippincott, or, in case of refusal, the 
selection by lot of a British prisoner having a 
rank equal to Huddy's. Sir Henry Clinton 
refused to give up Lippincott, v^ho said that 
he had acted under orders from Governor 
Franklin — the last Royal Governor of New 
Jersey. Sir Guy Carleton had taken com- 
mand of the British forces in New York, and 
when appeal was made to him, he merely ex- 
pressed his regret, — but he abolished the 
Board of Loyalists and assured Washington 
that he desired "to pursue every measure 
that might tend to prevent these criminal ex- 
cesses in individuals." Carleton was a wise, 
just, and humane man, one of the notable 
exceptions among the English commanders 
in America during the Revolution. 

It is said that during the pendency of the 
correspondence, Captain Adam Huyler, of 
New Brunswick, a warm friend of Huddy's, 
went disguised to New York to capture 
Lippincott ; and if that worthless individual 
had not been attending a cock-fight, he 
"would have been offered as a sweet revenge 
to the manes of poor Huddy." 

There were thirteen British captains in 

York, Pennsylvania, and on May 3d General 

Moses Hazen was ordered to select one by lot 

to suffer for Huddy's murder. The drawing 

15 111 



POOR HUDDY 

took place on May 27th, and the lot fell on 
Captain Charles Asgill, Jr., of the First Regi- 
ment of Foot, only nineteen years of age. It 
turned out that Asgill was not an uncondi- 
tional prisoner of war but one of those in- 
cluded in the Yorktown surrender. This 
caused Washington much distress. More- 
over, a sympathy for Asgill swept like wild- 
fire to the Court of St. James and thence to 
Versailles, where the Count de Vergennes im- 
plored Marie Antoinette to intercede. Wash- 
ington received a pathetic letter from Lady 
Asgill, the boy's mother, and many other let- 
ters passed between England and America on 
the subject. A request for clemency came to 
Congress from the States-General of Holland. 
Tom Paine wrote to the British Commander 
in Chief: 

The villain and the victim are here separated charac- 
ters. You hold the one and we hold the other. You 
disown or affect to disown or reprobate the conduct of 
Lippincott, yet you give him sanctuary and by so doing 
you as effectually become the executioner of Asgill as if 
you put the rope around his neck and dismissed him 
from the world. * * • Deliver up the one and save 
the other, withhold the one and the other dies by your 
choice. 

While the correspondence was going on, 
Asgill was on parole about Chatham and 
Morristown, New Jersey. The letter of 
112 



POOR HUDDY 

Vergennes was of great weight, and on No- 
vember 7, 1782, Congress passed this resolu- 
tion: 

Resolved, that the Commander in Chief is directed 
to set Captain Asgill at liberty. 

This was sent to him forthwith with a polite 
letter from Washington, which certainly mer- 
ited a reply, although history does not record 
it. Asgill at once returned to England as the 
"conquering hero." He received both in 
France and England an enthusiastic recep- 
tion, and became a general officer in the 
British Army. Lippincott went to Toronto, 
and died in 1826 at the age of eighty-two. 

And what of poor Huddy ? While his mur- 
derer enjoyed the recompense of the murder, 
and a lad who had done nothing to merit them 
was receiving the silly plaudits of a silly peo- 
ple, — the true hero was being sedulously 
forgotten. 

Cicero said: "The perfection of glory- 
consists in three things : first, that the people 
love us ; second, that they have confidence in 
us; third, that they think we deserve to be 
honoured." If this be true, then to-day we 
may place Huddy on a pedestal, feeling that 
he fitly deserves a place among the martyrs 
of the War of Independence. 

Philip Freneau, a poet of the Revolution, 
113 



POOR HUDDY 

lies near poor Huddy in the old Freehold 
graveyard. He wrote in a humorous poem: 

I '11 petition the rebels (if York is forsaken) 

For a place in their Zion, which ne'er shall be shaken, 

I 'm sure they '11 be clever, it seems their whole study, 

They hung not young Asgill for old Captain Huddy, 

And it must be a truth that admits no denying. 

If they spare us for murder, they'll spare us for lying. 

I am not a believer in the wisdom of 
retaliation such as w^as contemplated in the 
selection of Asgill as a sacrifice. The impolicy 
of such a method of procedure has been 
demonstrated over and over again, and mod- 
ern civilization has set upon it the mark of 
disapproval. But there is in my heart a 
sense of injustice in the ascription to Asgill of 
some heroic quality, — he could not help him- 
self, he was only a puppet — and that the na- 
tions of the old world should have been agi- 
tated to their foundations about him, when 
almost every one forgot and gave never a 
thought to the fine old soldier, the typical 
American of his day — poor Huddy. 



114 



THE SURPRISE AT PRINCETON 



THE SURPRISE AT PRINCETON 

THE battle of Princeton took place on the 
morning of January 3, 1777. In a recent 
address at a dinner given by the Sons of the 
American Revolution on the anniversary of 
the battle, Professor Sloane quoted Lord 
George Germaine's famous sentence: "All 
our hopes were blasted by that unhappy af- 
fair at Trenton." Said Professor Sloane, 
"He might have added, as a proper pendant 
to this doleful remark, 'this wretched busi- 
ness at Princeton has confirmed all our 
fears.'" 

The battle of Princeton was a small one, 
but its consequences were far-reaching. The 
enemy was routed ; one hundred of the Brit- 
ish soldiers were killed; three hundred were 
taken prisoners, fourteen of them being ofii- 
cers ; while our loss was twenty-five or thirty 
117 



THE SURPRISE AT PRINCETON 

men and several officers, of whom Colonel 
Haslet of Delaware was one, and General 
Mercer, Washington's true friend, another. 
General Mercer died from the effect of his 
wounds at the house of Mr. Clark, near 
Princeton, where Mrs. Hale, a Daughter of 
the American Revolution, now lives. Mrs. 
Hale has recently told me many incidents 
concerning that historic house. 

I shall not burden you with the details of 
the battle, w^hich was composed of several 
engagements. Like many other great victor- 
ies, it was a small battle when compared 
with its momentous results, for this strategic 
move of Washington revived the spirits of 
our troops, and showed Cornwallis that he 
had "foemen worthy of his steel," a fact 
which he seemed to have doubted a day or 
two before, when he ^vas about to sail for 
England. 

There has perhaps been more discussion as 
to w^hom belongs the honor of the conception 
of that brilliant flank movement of the 
American Army at Princeton on the night of 
January 2, and in the early morning of Janu- 
ary 3, 1777, than there has been on any 
other question of the Revolutionary War. 

Many authorities give the honor to Gen- 
eral St. Clair, and insinuate that Washington 
118 



THE SURPRISE AT PRINCETON 

was not aware of the danger which threat- 
ened him from the superior force of Lord 
ComwaUis. Yet Washington surely knew 
his peril, and possibly may have heard that 
Cornwallis had boasted that he "would be 
sure to bag the fox in the morning." At the 
council of war which Washington held with 
his officers the plan of surprising Princeton 
was fully discussed. 

In a review of this subject in the Maga- 
zine of American History by General Stryker, 
he says : 

"It is impossible for me to suppose that 
General Washington did not know well what 
he was doing all the day of January 2, and 
into what a critical condition he was being 
driven. It is quite impossible for me to think 
that he deliberately allowed himself to be 
placed in a trap and then after dark, in deep 
despair, called upon his generals to get him 
out of a scrape from which he felt himself 
powerless even to suggest a plan of escape." 

Washington reminds me of the Viscount de 
Turenne, Marshal of France under Louis 
XIV. If he gained a battle he always said 
" We succeeded," so as to give the army cred- 
it, but if defeated, he wrote, "J lost," and so 
I am sure that had General St. Clair, or any 
other officer, planned the attack, Washington 

16 119 



THE SURPRISE AT PRINCETON 

would have given him his full share of the 
credit. 

Von Moltke, the great German strategist, 
considered this the most skilful movement of 
Washington during the entire war, and it 
was the campaign in the Jerseys that won 
for General Washington his significant appel- 
lation, "The American Fabius." 



120 



